Eastern senior Carrie Riordan shot a two-over 74 to put her in first place after the first round of the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament at Crooked Creek Community Golf Course in London, Ky.

Riordan birdied one hole on the front nine and bogeyed two, but shot only one over in the back nine to take the two-stroke advantage against Laura Cutler of Jacksonville State and Joyce Trus of Murray State.

Riordan said she was not thinking about her score, and as she was playing, she just concentrated on hitting shots.

“In the front nine, I wasn’t hitting greens, but I was putting the ball well,” Riordan said. “On the back nine, I was hitting the greens, but I was two or three putting.”

She said she wants to keep everything going the way it is because she know eventually the putts will fall.

The team ended its first action in seventh place out of eight teams.

Eastern, who shot 324 (plus-36), finished two strokes behind sixth place Eastern Kentucky, four strokes behind fifth place Morehead State and five strokes behind fourth place Austin Peay.

Junior Katie Imburgia finished with an 81 (plus-9).

She said she was not happy with how she played in the first round.

“I hit the ball well, but I did not do a job putting,” Imburgia said. “I practiced after the round putting. I am confident now I will do better tomorrow.”

She said the weather was the best they had played in all spring, but the course had a lot of mud because of the rain from earlier this week.

Freshman Kathryn Koester finished with an 84 (plus-12) with senior Michelle Anderson and junior Jaymie Voorhees both shooting 85 (plus-13).

Murray State is in the lead with a first round score of 312 (plus-24) and is followed by Austin Peay 316 (plus-28).

“After the round, we came back kind of bummed, but we went online and saw the scores and saw we were only 12 shots back, which changed everything,” Imburgia said. “I think we will absolutely do better tomorrow and move our way up the leaderboard.”

Riordan said 12 stokes is not that much, and she thinks the team can make a run at the leaderboard.

Second round play will continue tomorrow, with the third and final round being held Saturday.

Men prepare for tourney

The Eastern men’s golf team will begin the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament Monday at The Shoals Golf Course in Muscle Shoals, Ala.

The team will leave Saturday for the tournament to meet up with head coach Mike Moncel, who is at the women’s tournament, and be in Alabama in time for practice rounds on Sunday.

The team is coming off of a win in a triangular tournament against Chicago State and Southern Illinois Edwardsville.

Freshman Gino Parrodi said that was a small tournament, but it was good practice for Eastern.

He said the team has played well at times during the year, but they have not played consistently throughout an entire tournament. He thinks the tournament will be different.

“We have had some good weather this week and we have been hitting the ball well,” Parrodi said. “Everyone is feeling good, and I think we should do well this weekend.”

Junior Matt Bird said the team’s training went well Thursday, and the players were hitting the ball well.

He said although the team has to worry about the second to last week of school, the team will be ready.

Parrodi said it is late enough in the season that they have played enough rounds that they are comfortable. He said he was met his own expectations for his freshman year, but hopes he can play well this weekend.

The first round is scheduled for Monday with the tournament concluding Wednesday.

Dan Cusack can be reached at 581-7944 or at dscusack@eiu.edu.

Sophomore Sarah Magee watches the ball after driving it into the second hole during practice on March 9 at the Mattoon Country Club. (Karolina Strack/The Daily Eastern News)

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