A season-opening trip out of the country was a little out of the ordinary for the women's golf team this week, but the results were very familiar: Liz Janangelo and Virada Nirapathpongporn are doing their thing, and the Blue Devils are way on top.
Heading into the final day of the Lady Puerto Rico Classic in San Juan, Puerto Rico, No. 1 Duke continued to start off its spring season in dominating fashion. The Blue Devils pushed their lead from seven to 11 strokes yesterday in the second round of play and look to pull away with the first of many wins to come this season in today's final round.
Still, steadfast coach Dan Brooks remains skeptical of Duke getting ahead of itself.
"Overall, we were not as sharp out there today," he said. "We are going to have to stay focused and be on our toes Tuesday to maintain our lead."
Janangelo, who finished first in three of the Blue Devils' five fall tournaments, moved up from fifth to first individually with two-under 70 yesterday. A win tomorrow would almost certainly keep her at the top spot in the national Golfweek/Sagarin Index Performance Index that tracks college's best golfers.
"Liz took advantage of her ability to hit the ball a long way today," Brooks said. "She was hitting it close on her approach shots and rolled the ball well, but her putts were just not dropping."
Not much was dropping for Nirapathpongporn either, who shot a six-over 78 a day after Brooks said her swing was "as good as it has ever been." She slipped from first place individually into a tie for second with USC's Veronica Felibert. Both are two strokes behind Janangelo.
Duke outshot the team fields yesterday, too, with a score of 293 leaving them at a two-round tally of 578. Oklahoma trails at 589, followed by Georgia at 591, USC at 594, Tulsa at 600 and 10 other national powerhouses far out of reach for tee off this morning at 8 a.m.
The Blue Devils will return this week and begin the United States leg of their top-ranked tour in earnest over Spring Break at the Sun Trust Invitational in Gainesville, Fla.
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