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First Round Results 

NOBLESVILLE, Ind. -- The Northern Illinois University women's golf team sits in eighth after the first round of play in the 2016 Mid-American Conference Championships at Purgatory Golf Club Friday.

The Huskies shot an opening round 310, one shot ahead of ninth-place Ball State and are nine strokes behind Ohio, which sits in seventh with a 301. Toledo leads the field with a 290, and Akron's Danielle Nicholson leads all individuals with a 69.

"It was not a great day today," said NIU head coach Kim Kester. "We made too many mistakes that added up. We need to score better on the par fives. However, there's still two days left to move up."

As a team, the Huskies tallied 56 pars. However, NIU mustered only four birdies on the day, the lowest of the 10 teams in the field. For the Huskies to move up the leaderboard Saturday, they'll have to convert some of those pars into birdies and cut down on their 27 bogeys.

Once again, Lena Gautier (La Celle Saint Cloud) leads the way for NIU. The Huskie junior shot a first round 76 and sits in 29th. Gautier was pretty consistent, firing a 38 on both the front nine and back nine.

Junior Sydney Brickey (Burtchville, Mich./Shattuck-St. Mary's) and freshman Kelly Anderson (Wheaton, Ill./Wheaton-Warrenville South) also carded sub-80 rounds. The Huskie duo both shot a 77. Brickey posted two birdies in her round, while Anderson had one. They are tied for 33rd.

Connie Ellett (Hampshire, Ill./Hampshire) didn't let a pair of back-to-back double bogeys on the front nine derail her round. The Huskie senior trimmed two strokes off her first round 41 to finish the day with an 80 and is in 42nd. Freshman Brielle Ward (Frisco, Texas/Wakeland) is in 47th after shooting an 83.

The Huskies will begin their second round of play at 8:50 am CT Saturday and will be playing with Ohio. Fans can follow all the action live via three-hole scoring on golfstat.com.

Team Scores: 1. Toledo (290); 2. Western Michigan (293); 3. Kent State (294); 4. Bowling Green (295); 5. Eastern Michigan (296); 6. Akron (300); 7. Ohio (301); 8. NIU (310); 9. Ball State (311); 10. Central Michigan (317).

Individual Scores: 1. Danielle Nicholson (UA) 69; 2. Manisa Isavas (UT) 70; T-3. Kelsey Murphy (EMU) 71, Chloe Lawrie (WMU) 71; T-5. Josee Doyon (KSU) 72, Fran Rodriguez (BGSU) 72; T-7. Six tied at 73.

-NIU-