SMITHVILLE, Mo. - Concordia-St. Paul women's golf opened the first of three rounds in fifth place among the 13 teams competing at the 2022 NSIC Championships, held at the Paradise Pointe Outlaw Course on Friday.

The Golden Bears shot a 342 on the first day, sitting +54 as a team and just 11 strokes behind second place Minnesota State (+43), also trailing third place Wayne State (+45) and fourth place Upper Iowa (+49) by single digit margins. Augustana leads the tournament by 25 shots over MSU, turning in a 306 (+18).

The field is tight, as CSP holds a one shot advantage over sixth place SMSU, and a four shot lead over seventh-place tie between Winona State and Sioux Falls. CSP also holds a single digit lead of nine strokes over ninth place Minot State.

Topping the charts for Concordia on the first day was Jessica Hagman, who played par golf on the back nine, shooting -2 between holes 8 and 14 with back-to-back birdies on 11 and 12. She finished the round at +7 and is tied for sixth in the 65 player field.

She leads teammate Isabella Dory (+9) by two shots as Dory came out and produced a par on five of the first six holes and added a birdie on 11 as she shot +3 on the back nine, sitting tied for 10th in the tournament.

Carding the third-ranked score among the Golden Bear lineup in round one was Katelyn Baribeau (+15), tied for 27th on the leaderboard. Her round was highlighted by nine pars and a birdie on hole 12.

Shannon McCormick (+1) of Augustana leads the individual leaderboard by three shots over Abbey Kummel (+4) of Wayne State.

Concordia's four birdies, delivered off the clubs of Hagman, Dory and Baribeau, are the third-most in the tournament with UMary leading the way with eight in the first round.

Breaking down the individual play, Hagman and Dory highlighted the day by playing +1 golf on par 5 holes to tie for sixth in the field while the duo also tied for 10th on par 4 play (+4). On the short holes, Baribeau and Hagman played +2 golf to tie for 11th and Anna Tollette added +3 play on par 3 holes.

The second round is set to begin with a shotgun start at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday morning.