The Valparaiso University women’s golf team holds a team score through 36 holes that is 22 strokes better than where the team was at through one day at last week’s tournament after a solid first day at The Brittany Kelly Classic, hosted by Ball State at the par-72, 6226-yard Players Club in Yorktown, Ind.

How It Happened

• Valpo’s Anna Fay (Ada, Mich. / Forest Hills) turned in the best round by a Beacon so far in the young season with her second-round performance on Monday, carding a 74 (+2). That came after a 77 in the opening round, helping her finish the first day of competition in the top 20 on the player leaderboard with a 36-hole score of 151 (t-19).
• Fay wasn’t the only Valpo player to string together a pair of sub-80 rounds on Monday, as Madison Keil (LaGrange, Ind. / Lakeland) did the same at 77-78. She finished the day tied for 37^th with a 36-hole score of 155.
• The next-best score by a Valpo player was 159, as Katie Schreiner (Fenton, Mo. / Summit) and Taylor Skibinski (Michigan City, Ind. / Michigan City) both finished the first day of golf as part of a tie for 54^th. Skibinski was one of three Valpo players to go 80 or better in each round at 78-80, while Schreiner posted a 78 in Round 2 to shave three strokes off her opening-round mark.
• Valpo finished the day with a team score of 624, 12^th on the team leaderboard. Both of Valpo’s team rounds were better than their best round of last week’s event at Illinois State. The day started with a team score of 314 in Round 1 before the squad improved four more strokes with a season-best 310 in Round 2. The Beacons finished the day 21 strokes ahead of Western Illinois and are nipping the heels of several other squads including Cleveland State (620) and Dayton (621).
• Host Ball State is atop the team leaderboard at 584, while Kiah Parrott of Ball State and Dasa Urbankova of UIC are tied atop the player leaderboard with 18 holes remaining.

Inside the Rounds

• The team turned in a Round-2 score of +22, tying for 10^th in program history in terms of 18-hole team score in relation to par. This was the team’s best round in relation to par since going +19 in the first round of last season’s Ball State tournament.
• Valpo finished sixth in the field in birdie production with 17 birdies on the first day of action.
• The team’s par-4 scoring was a strong suit with a 4.34 average. Fay averaged even par on par 4s, tied for the second-best par-4 performance among tournament competitors.  
• Fay drained seven birdies, tied for the fifth most in the 81-player field.

Thoughts from Head Coach Jill McCoy

“I’m very proud of the team today. After a rocky start last week, I’m very proud of them for buckling down and really grinding to make some improvements.”

Up Next

The Beacons will close out the event with the final round on Tuesday. A link to live scoring via GolfStat is available on ValpoAthletics.com.