CARROLLTON, Ga. – No. 23/25 Carson-Newman used a 10-shot improvement with four of the five Eagles in the field shooting lower from the first to the second rounds to sit at second-place through Monday at the Louise Suggs Invitational at the Sunset Hill Country Club.
Ellie Haughton (Lincolnshire, England) paced the group through the first 36 holes at second on the player leaderboard. The sophomore is 5-over heading into Tuesday's final round, two shots out of first.
C-N went into the clubhouse nine shots back of hosting No. 18 West Georgia after sitting in third through the opening round. It fired a 314 in the morning before clawing back with a 304 in the second to go 42-over on the day with a 618. The Eagles saw 14 birdies in the entire first day but tacked on 60 holes for bogey or greater.
"Obviously we performed much better in the second round," Carson-Newman coach Suzanne Strudwick said. "I was really pleased with special turnaround scores by Ellie over last week's event. She is proving to me she is becoming a consistent quality player."
Haughton matched her career-best round with a 74 in the opening 18, a score she has not shot since the first round of the Flagler Fall Slam on Oct. 21, 2019. All-told for the day, the sophomore carded four birdies with nine bogeys, five of those coming on par-4 holes. Her 74 and 75 in the first and second round are now the second-lowest and tied for third-lowest for C-N this season, respectively.
Five shots behind Haughton at the end of Monday was Maeve Cummins (Waringstown, Northern Ireland), in a tie for eighth. The junior posted the lowest single-round score for the entire team on Monday with a 73 in the second round, marking the lowest 18-hole score for an Eagle this season. That round came after a 9-over 81 in the morning that came with just one birdie and seven holes that went over-par, including a quadruple bogey on the par-5 18th. In the second round, she fired three birdies, including a major bounce-back one on the 18th. She had the largest improvement between the rounds on the team at eight shots.
Alice Thomas (Mid Glamorgan, Wales) closed the day in 10th with a 13-over 157. The freshman posted the most holes for bogey with 16 through the first two rounds on just three birdies, all of which came on par-5s. Eight of her bogeys landed on par-4s.
One stroke removed from Thomas was Hannah Holland (Sale Creek, Tenn.), sitting in 11th. She carded a 158 with rounds of 80 and 78. Like Thomas, the redshirt-sophomore also grabbed three birdies, all on par-5s. On the flip side, seven of her 13 over-par holes were on par-4s.
Matilda Frövenholt (Öjersjö, Sweden) checked in with a share of 13th at 16-over with rounds of 82 and 78 for a 160. She was the only Eagle to not shoot under-par on a single hole throughout the day. The senior was over-par on 12 holes, five of those being par-3s.
"Maeve had a wonderful second round," Strudwick said. "I think she relaxed a bit more and trusted herself. Alice also had two rounds in the 70s after last week, which I am so pleased. Hannah and Matilda are about to break through with some lower scores. I'm hoping we can keep this form going tomorrow."
The next closest team behind C-N on the leaderboard heading into the final round is West Florida with a 49-over 625.
West Georgia's Ainsley Cowart leads the field with a 3-over 147, including a 71 in the first round to be the lowest score of anyone in the field for the day. Columbus State's Victoria Libaak and Anna Thorne are tied for third at 6-over, one shot behind Haughton.
The invitational comes to a close on Tuesday following a single round of action. Teams will head to the links at 9 a.m. for a shotgun start.
