Golfers Make Vast Improvement On Day 2 At Rio Verde

Saturday, February 26

Rio Verde, Ariz. / Rio Verde CC

10:30 a.m.

Central Michigan University

Rio Verde Collegiate Invitational

2/26/2022 6:24:00 PM | Women's Golf

Kauflin stands tied for 11th heading into final round

By: Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com

RIO VERDE, Ariz. – The Central Michigan women's golf team improved by eight shots and moved up four places in the team standings on Saturday at the Rio Verde Invitational at Rio Verde Country Club.

Freshman Casilda Allendesalazar shot a career-best 1-under 71 to lead the Chippewas, who finished with a 302 team total and stand in seventh place with a 36-hole 612. The Chippewas began Saturday's round in 11^th place after posting a 310 on Friday.

The final round of the 18-team, 54-hole event is scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m. (ET) on Sunday.

The Chippewas, who are ranked 140^th nationally, trail first-place Kennesaw State by 30 shots. At No. 86, Kennesaw State is the highest-ranked team in the field. The Owls are at 582 (286-296). CMU is eight shots behind sixth-place Missouri State and ahead of the other six Mid-American Conference teams in the field.

"We want to hold that position," CMU coach Jim Earle said. "Missouri State is a really, really good team. They might be tough to catch, but if we go out there and post five good scores we could quite possibly catch them. Holding that (top MAC team) position would be a feather in our cap for sure."

CMU sophomore Rachel Kauflin followed her opening-round 74 with a 75 on Saturday, giving her a career-best 149 36-hole total. She is among a group tied for 11^th.

The tournament has been a nice rebound for Kauflin, who went 0-3 three weeks ago when the Chippewas opened the spring portion of their schedule at the MAC Match Play Challenge in Florida.

"She's just played Rachel golf, which is scrappy and keeping it in play and getting around the greens and getting down to business," Earle said. "For Rachel it comes down to putting because she's Rachel, and she's right down the middle of the fairway.

"The greens are undulated and they're tough greens to chip on; the pin placements are very difficult. If she's missing it, she's missing it in the right spots and she's able to get up and down."

Allendesalazar bounced back from an opening-round 80 with her 71, which moved her up 33 spots and into a group tied for 23rd. Her 71 ties for the third-best score in program history. Only 11 other rounds in program history have been as good, or better, than that turned in by Allendesalazar on Saturday.

Allendesalazar made two quadruple bogeys in Friday's opening round. Taking out those two holes, Allendesalazar has played 34 holes in 1-under par.

Big numbers were an issue for all five Chippewas on Friday. In the combined 90 holes, they totaled a quintuple bogey, four quads, and two double bogeys.

On Saturday, no Chippewa made worse than a bogey. Also for CMU on Saturday, Claudia Salvador shot 77, Ashley Goh carded a 79, and Padgett Chitty signed for an 80. Salvador is tied for 27^th at 152.

"I don't know if we played that much better today than we did yesterday, but we made huge numbers (on Friday) across the board," Earle said. "That 310, though that's our highest score of the year, it was pretty good to hold it to 310 after those huge numbers."