ANDERSON, S.C. --- Tusculum University senior Nilubol Panno fired a one-under par 71 and is in second place after Sunday's opening round of the 2023 South Atlantic Conference Championship. The three-day, 54-hole tournament is being held at the par-72, 5,911-yard Cobbs Glen Country Club and hosted by Anderson University.

The Pioneers posted a team score of 307 and are in seventh place in the 12-team tournament field.

Panno was two-under par on her outward nine holes with birdies on No. 4 and No. 7. Her tee shot on the par-three seventh hole landed a foot away to set up the tap-in birdie. She followed with five straight pars before a bogey on No. 13. After a par on No. 14, she recorded an eagle three on the par-5 15^th hole to move to three-under par for her round. But bogeys on two of the final three holes moved her to 71.

Host Anderson shot 283 and has a 17-stroke lead after 18 holes. The Trojans have four golfers in the top-seven including first day leader Kennedy Gooding who fired a six-under par 66 and leads by five shots over Panno and Carson-Newman's Maeve Cummins (71).

Tusculum rookie Reagan Padilla overcame a sluggish start to post a five-over par 77 and is tied for 18^th place. After a par on the first hole, Padilla recorded five consecutive bogeys to move to five-over par for her round. But she would shoot even par for the final 12 holes.

Junior Adrienne O'Brien was five over par after five holes to start her round. But she would go two-over par for her final 13 holes including a birdie on No. 18 to finish with a 79 and is in 29th place.

Junior Emilie Bergh-Jacobsen is 38^th after posting an 80 on Sunday while freshman Lindsay Self shot 90 and is 56^th.

TU's 307 is second-lowest opening round score in the SAC Championship by a Tusculum team and is tied for the third-lowest overall. The Pioneers opened the 2017 SAC Tournament with a 298 when TU hosted the championship at Link Hills Country Club. Tusculum last shot 307 in the second round of the 2019 event at Lake Hickory Country Club in Hickory, North Carolina.

Panno's 71 is her second lowest round of the season and the third-best of her career. The 71 is the lowest SAC opening round by a Pioneer and the second-lowest round by a Tusculum player at the league championship. Only Rachel McFarland's final round 69 at the 2003 SAC Championship was better.

Tusculum will be paired with Lenoir-Rhyne and Catawba in Monday's second round as the Pioneers first group will tee off at 9:15 a.m. The final round will be held on Tuesday with the winner earning the league's automatic berth to the NCAA Division II South Region Championship next month.

SAC Women's Golf Championship (1^st Round)

Tusculum Individual Scores