Schaeffner scores ace, Coastal Carolina in fourth at regional

Lena Schaeffner highlighted a strong showing from the Coastal Carolina women’s golf team in round two of NCAA regional play Friday in Raleigh, N.C., shooting her first-ever hole-in-one and just the fourth in program history.

Schaeffner would say later by phone that she actually thought she left her tee shot short and perilously close to a front-side bunker on the par-3 17th hole at Lonnie Poole Golf Course … until she watched it take two bounces and spin into the hole.

Yeah, it was that kind of day for the Chanticleers.

Through two rounds of the 54-hole NCAA East Regional, Coastal Carolina is in fourth place at 17-over, 12 strokes behind leader South Carolina and also behind Alabama (13-over) and LSU (16-over).

The top six teams advance to the NCAA championship tournament later this month and the Chants, who shot a collective 2-over 290 Friday, will enter the final round Saturday morning with a three-stroke cushion between them and Ohio State and host N.C. State, who are currently tied for sixth at 20-over.

Schaeffner, meanwhile, shot a 2-under 70 on Friday and is tied for third at 1-under for the tournament, five shots behind leader Madelene Sagstrom from LSU.

“We actually were just joking that it was moving day today and thank goodness we moved in the right direction,” Chants coach Katie Quinney said by phone. “[Thursday] we made as many pars and birdies as anybody else that was playing well. We just made some pretty big numbers and big mistakes on some holes. Today no matter [what] we just hung really, really tough.”

The Chants, champions of the Big South this season and looking to make the NCAA championship tournament for the first time since 2011, improved 13 strokes from their first-round score and moved up eight spots in the standings.

As for Schaeffner, she said the hole-in-one was extra special with her family from her native Germany in attendance. It was also the first hole-in-one for a Coastal Carolina women’s golfer since Brittany Henderson in October of 2011.

“When I hit it, I first thought I didn’t hit it too well and it was kind of short,” she said. “The pin was right behind the bunker. I hit it and was like, ‘Oh, shoot.’ It bounced one hop behind the bunker and next hop it skipped in and I actually saw it going in. For me, I got a little excited the first couple seconds and obviously everybody that was watching was screaming, but I tried to cool it off quick so I didn’t get too excited or too hyped about it because I knew I had 11 holes to play.”

Schaeffner had started on the back nine and moved to 4-under with that eagle on the 125-yard No. 17 before finishing with three bogeys and a birdie on her final nine.

While she is in the hunt for the individual championship, Schaeffner said she was more concerned about the team advancing to the next round.

“I think we’re in a good position to actually beat some more teams tomorrow and show who we are and make it to nationals,” she said. “We played pretty good today, but we left a lot out there still.”

Freshman Malene Krolboll Hansen shot even par for the Chants on Friday while junior Bailey Cocca and senior Frida Castillo were each 2-over to round out the team’s scoring.

“I think ability-wise, skill-wise we have more than enough talent to do what we need to do tomorrow,” Quinney said. “We’re just trying to relax and have fun and take what the golf course gives us, play the best golf we can and hope that’s going to be good enough tomorrow.”

This story was originally published May 8, 2015 at 10:25 PM with the headline "Schaeffner scores ace, Coastal Carolina in fourth at regional."