Georgetown takes early lead in Big East tournament

The Big East Women’s Golf Championship presented by Jeep got off to an interesting start on Callawassie Island on Friday.

For the past three years, Seton Hall has held the championship title while the Georgetown Hoyas followed closely behind as runners-up. This year, the Hoyas owned first place with a team score of eight-over-par 296 at the end of the first day of the three-day event. Seton Hall has been knocked down to fourth place at 315 (+21).

St. John’s is in second place at 303 (+15) followed by Butler at 309 (+21).

The individual champion from this weekend’s tournament will earn an automatic invitation to the NCAA Championship. Both team and individual champions will be crowned on Callawassie Island, while the Big East Player of the Year, Freshman of the Year and Coaching Staff of the Year will be announced following the tournament.

Seton Hall’s Cassie Pantelas tops the individual leaderboard. Georgetown has four players in the top eight — sophomore Alexa Popowitz, junior Lauren Gros, junior Ashley Fitzgibbons and freshman Jacquelyn Eleey.

Freshman Kaitleen Shee of St. John’s carded a 73 (+1), good for third place on the individual leaderboard. She will tee off Saturday on the Dogwood Course at 9:30 a.m. with Betsy Werner of Butler and Popowitz.

Day two of the tournament will start at 8 a.m. on Callawassie Island. The event is free and open to the public.

This story was originally published April 21, 2017 at 7:22 PM with the headline "Georgetown takes early lead in Big East tournament."