Site: Greenville, N.C.
Course: Greenville Country Club (Par 72, 6,061 yards)
Tournament: ECU Pirate Collegiate Classic
HPU Team Standing: 5th of 10 teams (315-296--611, +35)
Top HPU Individual:  Sarah Kahn (77-73--149, +6), T-10th
Next HPU Round: Tuesday, September 21 -- at ECU Pirate Collegiate Classic, Final Round (Greenville, N.C.)

GREENVILLE, N.C. -- The High Point University women's golf team finds itself in the middle of the pack after the first 36 holes of the 2021-22 season at the ECU Pirate Collegiate Classic on Monday (Sept. 20).
 
High Point struggled as a team to start the day and ended round one in seventh place with a 315. The Panthers were able to make up some ground in the afternoon with a 296 for the second-best score in round two among the field, trailing only the host and 36-hole leader ECU's 290.
 
"Obviously by the scores, it's easy to see it was a tale of two rounds today," head coach Alexis Bennett said at the end of the day. "This morning we were defensive, full of nerves, and afraid of making mistakes. This afternoon we settled in and, on the whole, swung freer and with a much higher level of commitment. We've always taken pride in our identity as 'comeback kids' so a 19-shot improvement certainly can't be overlooked. We're excited for another chance to make a move tomorrow and show that this afternoon was much closer to our brand of golf than round one was."
 
Redshirt junior Sarah Kahn leads HPU in a share of 10th place at six-over. Sophomore Danielle Suh and freshman Minonna Falkman Lehes are each inside the top 20 in ties for 13th and 16th place, respectively. Sophomore Vynie Chen ended the day in a tie for 27th at 12-over while senior Olivia John has a share of 31st at +14 to round out the Purple and White's lineup.
 
Only one player was under par in the first round of the day in ECU's Oda Sofie Kilsti with a four-under 68. Just the top-four golfers were par-or-better after 18 holes and Kahn and Suh sat in a share of 16th at five-over halfway through the day. The first nine holes were especially tough early in the morning for HPU as the Panthers played them a combined +18.
 
Kahn was the only High Point golfer with multiple birdies in the first round, picking up two of them in a stretch of three holes to shoot even on the back in round one. She carried that momentum over to the start of the second round and matched one bogey with a birdie on the front and picked up two more birdies with three bogeys for a second-round 73. Kahn was one of the better players on the shorter holes on day one, ending the two rounds -1 on par-3s, one of just seven players in the field of 53 under par on them.
 
Suh had the best front-nine in round one with a two-over 38 after taking two bogeys on back-to-back holes. She took four bogeys in the first eight holes of the back before ending the round on a high note with a birdie on the par-5 18th. Suh led the Panthers with four birdies in the second round, picking up two on each nine, for her 75. She made the turn at even but a pair of doubles and a bogey before carding her fourth and final birdie of the round on 18 dropped her back to three-over for the afternoon round.
 
Falkman Lehes had the biggest improvement between rounds one and two among all golfers in the field, climbing 20 spots by the day's end. She only carded one birdie in the morning, coming on the par-3 10th hole, in her opening-round 81. The freshman shot a team-best, even-par 72 in the afternoon behind two birdies on the front and a team-low two bogeys on the back to fly up the leaderboard from 36th to a share of 16th. The freshman has been one of the most consistent players in the field with a total of 24 pars in the first 36 holes, tied for the fifth-most in the tournament.
 
Chen only had two birdies all day and picked up both of them on her final two holes. She only had a double and a bogey after nine holes to make the turn at second on the team with a three-over 39 before a string of four consecutive bogeys and one more on 17 dropped her back to an 80 for the round. She matched her 39 on the front in the second round with three bogeys and had a double and another bogey on the back before finding red numbers with birdies on 17 and 18 to slide inside the top-30 with a second-round 76.
 
John fired a 40 and a 41 in the first round of the day, picking up her first birdie of the season on hole nine. She birdied the ninth hole again in the second round and followed Chen's lead by carding a birdie on the finisher to make it three Panthers with birdies on 18 and sit just outside the top 30.
 
ECU leads the tournament after 36 holes with a 588 after having both rounds under 300. High Point is only eight shots behind second place as Towson and Charleston Southern are tied for the spot at +27, with Marshall sitting one stroke behind at +28. The Pirates also have the individual leader after Kilsti fired a pair of 68s to be the only golfer multiple strokes under par.
 
HPU looks for a strong finish in the season-opening tournament with the final 18 holes of the ECU Pirate Collegiate Classic on Tuesday (Sept. 21). The Panthers will start on the back during the 9:00 hour and are paired with Marshall and Cincinnati.