WICHITA FALLS, Texas – The No. 4 St. Mary's University Women's Golf team had two opposite rounds on day one of the Midwestern State Invitational, and sit in third place heading into the final round on Tuesday.
 
The Rattlers were +16 in the morning and sat in fourth place after 18 holes, but bounced back under less windy conditions in the afternoon to fire a five-under-par 283 to move up one spot on the leaderboard into second place. The team is 25 shots off the lead of 562 by top-ranked DBU, but are only one stroke behind #20 West Texas A&M in second place.
 
A big reason for the stellar afternoon score was junior Sophia Perkins (Sydney, Australia), who fired a career-low round of 67 in the second round to move into a tie for ninth place on the individual leaderboard. Twice during the round, Perkins posted three consecutive birdies, doing so on holes 4-6 and again on holes 15-17. She ended the round with seven birdies and only two bogeys. Perkins started the day with a 79 in the first round.
 
Junior Brielle Burns (Houston), who is ranked No. 41 by Scorecard, jumped 10 spots on the leaderboard into a tie for 13th place after firing a one-under-par 71 in the afternoon. She is currently three-over for the tournament with 147 (76-71) strokes, one shot behind Perkins.
 
Fellow junior Sabree Lefebvre (Riverview, Fla.) is one shot back of Burns, in a tie for 16th place after turning in 148 strokes over the two rounds. Lefebvre improved her morning round by two strokes to fire a 73 in the afternoon.
 
Sophomore Manon Verret (Toulouse, France) shot a 74 in the morning round, and carded a 77 in the afternoon and is currently tied for 20th place with 151 strokes (+7), alongside senior Taylor Wilczek (Anthem, Ariz.). Wilczek struggled in the morning, turning in a round of 79, but bounced back for even par in the afternoon to leap 20 places up the leaderboard.
 
Junior Gladys Taboada (Puebla, Mexico) is golfing as an individual and ended the day tied for 47th place. She improved by one stroke in the afternoon and is 15-over-par for the day (80-79=159).
 
The Rattlers will be in the lead groups tomorrow, teeing off on holes one through four with golfers from DBU, West Texas A&M and UT Dallas. Taboada will start on the 17th hole alongside golfers from Midwestern State, Cameron and Texas Tech.