NAPLES, Fla. – The University of Pennsylvania women's golf team used a record performance in Friday's first round to end the first day of the Ivy League Championship in a tie for second place. The three-day, 54-hole event is taking place this weekend on the par-72 course at Royal Palm Golf Club.
 
Results (Clippd.com)
 
Penn shot 4-over-par 292 as a team Friday—the first round of this weekend's six-play, four-score event—and is tied with Columbia for second place behind Princeton (289, +1). Prior to Friday, the lowest score a Penn team had scored at the Championship was a first-round 296 (+8) in 2023, coincidentally the last time the Quakers won the team title at this event.
 
Harvard is in fourth place, five strokes behind the Quakers and Lions, with Yale (300, +12) and Dartmouth (301, +13) filling in the fifth and sixth spots.
 
Individually, junior Julie Shin carded a 1-under-par 71 which left her tied for third in the 36-player field. This is the second straight year that Shin has played the first round of the Championship under par, making her just the second player in program history with two under-par rounds at Ivies during her career with Amanda Chin.
 
Senior Natalie Cao and sophomore Maggie Ni are just behind Shin, finishing at 1-over-par 73; they are two of three golfers tied for eighth. Madeleine Zang was the Quakers' other scorer on Friday, carding a 3-over-par 75 which has her tied for 16th. Junior Bridget O'Keefe (77, +5) and freshman Claire Lu (83, +11) rounded out Penn's lineup.
 
Harvard's Vanessa Zhang is atop the individual leaderboard after Friday's first round; she shot a 4-under-par 68 and is two strokes ahead of Columbia's Christine Chang. Shin is tied for third with Columbia's Sarah Shao, one stroke ahead of the Princeton trio of Abra Richmond, YanJun Liu and Olivia Duan.
 
For the latest on Penn women's golf, follow @PennWomensGolf on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram, and on the web at PennAthletics.com.