Coughlin leads opening charge by Virginia at ACC Championship

   Selection Sunday for the NCAA Women’s Tournament is still more than a week away, but the 54-hole ACC Championship teed off Friday to highlight the start of a busy couple of weeks of conference tournament action on both the men’s and women’s collegiate golf scene.

   Virginia, No. 18 in the latest Golfstat rankings and looking to capture the ACC team title for a second straight year, again found the 6,089-yard, par-72 Sedgefield Country Club layout to its liking. The Cavaliers, led by a spectacular 6-under 66 from Lauren Coughlin, a senior from Chesapeake, Va., fired a 5-under 283 to take an 11-shot lead over No. 3 Duke and No. 45 Wake Forest.

   Coughlin’s teammate, Lauren Diaz-Yi, a junior from Thousand Oaks, Calif., also broke par at Sedgefield, home of the PGA Tour’s Wyndham Championship, with a 1-under 71 that gave her a share of fourth place.

   Wake Forest, which has been coming on strong this spring, was led by Jennifer Kupcho, a freshman from Littleton, Colo., who matched Coughlin’s round with an equally brilliant 66 that featured an eagle on the par-5 18^th hole.

   Also scoring for the Demon Deacons were Antonia Eberhard, a freshman from Germany who is tied for 18^th with a 75, Sierra Sims, a junior from Austin, Texas who is tied for 27^th with a 76, and sophomore Erica Herr, the two-time PIAA champion from Council Rock North who is tied for 38^th with a 77.

   Wake Forest posted a solid 6-over 294, where it was joined by perennial ACC powerhouse Duke. The Blue Devils were led by sophomore Leona Maguire, the No. 1 amateur player in the world from Ireland. Maguire is in third place in the individual chase following a 2-under 70.

   Joining Virginia’s Diaz-Yi in the group tied for fourth at 1-under 71 are Miami’s Daniela Darquea, a junior from Ecuador, and North Carolina State’s Naomi Ko, a freshman from Canada.

   Ko and the Wolfpack, No. 34 in the latest Golfstat rankings, are alone in fourth place in the team standings at 9-over 267. North Carolina, ranked 46^th, and No. 47 Clemson are tied for fifth another shot back at 10-over 298.

   It was a disappointing day for No. 37 Notre Dame, which struggled in the breezy conditions at Sedgefield and sits in 10^th place with a 310 total.

   Emma Albrecht, a freshman from Ormond Beach, Fla., led the way for the Fighting Irish with a 3-over 75 that left her tied for 18^th. Talia Campbell, a senior from Dallas, is tied for 27^th with a 76, Maddie Rose Hamilton, a freshman from Louisville, Ky., is tied for 43^rd with a 78, another freshman, Isabella DiLisio, the 2013 PIAA Class AAA champion at Mount St. Joseph, is tied for 52^nd with an 81 and Jordan Ferreira, a junior from University Place, Wash. Is 57^th with an 83.

   The Southeastern Conference Championship also teed off Friday and top-ranked Alabama jumped right in front with a 2-under 286 that gave the Crimson Tide a six-shot lead over Florida.

   Lakareber Abe, a sophomore from Angleton, Texas, and Emma Talley, a senior from Princeton, Ky., both carded 2-under 70s over The Legacy Course at Greystone Golf & Country Club in Birmingham, Ala. and are two of the four players tied for third in the individual standings. Talley is the reigning NCAA individual champion and winner of the 2013 U.S. Women’s Amateur.