AUSTIN – The second round of the Betsy Rawls Invitational on Saturday proved to be a successful one for the UNT women's golf team.
 
After shooting the highest score in the field on Friday, the Mean Green rebounded to shoot a 17-over-par 305 on Saturday – better than six other teams' second-round scores, including top-ranked Alabama.
 
"We did a good job of improving and moving up," UNT coach Michael Akers said. "The ladies looked much more like themselves. We did lose shots that we can work on for tomorrow. I like the fact we are in striking distance of the No. 1 team in the country.  Strokes are so important, as we improve and work to get the program in a position to be ranked in the top 50."
 
While it was two freshmen who led the way for North Texas on Friday, Saturday's effort was led by the reliable duo of junior Lauren Cox and senior Sabina Pena, who are now tied for 38th and 44th, respectively, entering the final round, as UNT sits in 11th place at +47, just six shots back of No. 40 Colorado and No. 41 Texas A&M and 10 strokes behind Alabama.
 
"Lauren played very solid today," Akers said. "Sabina had two doubles but still fought hard to shoot 3-over. We are still waiting for Patricia to break out. She is a dynamic player and just needs that competition low round to get her going."
 
UNT will tee off in a shotgun start at 8:45 a.m., Sunday, as the Mean Green will look to further climb the leaderboard and end the tournament on a high note. Fans can follow live on GolfStat.com, and find more information on the Betsy Rawls Invitational here.
 
Team Leaderboard
T1. No. 6 Texas (-1)
T1. No. 16 Kent State (-1)
3. No. 7 Florida (+10)
4. No. 28 Baylor (+11)
5. No. 49 SMU (+24)
6. No. 38 Texas Tech (+26)
7. No. 1 Alabama (+37)
T8. No. 41 Texas A&M (+41)
T8. No. 40 Colorado (+41)
10. Tulane (+46)
11. North Texas (+47)
12. New Mexico (+55)
13. Texas State (+58)
 
Player Leaderboard
T38. Lauren Cox (+9)
T44. Sabina Pena (+11)
T49. Audrey Tan (+13)
61. Patricia Sinolungan (+17)
T65. Claire Cameron (+20)