ROME, N.Y.—First-year Alice Zhu (Orlando, Fla.) is just one stoke off the lead after shooting a 3-over 75 and Babson College sits in third place overall after round one of the Hamilton Invitational at Rome Country Club. 

The Beavers finished the day with a score of 26-over 314 and is six shots behind No. 9 Wellesley (308) and four shots in back of No. 6 Williams (310). No. 23 Hamilton is in fourth place at 315 and 13th-ranked Amherst is fifth after shooting 318 as seven teams in all are within 12 strokes of the lead after 18 holes. 

Zhu, who started her day on the 13th hole, played her first 12 holes in 7-over before making four birdies on the way in to get into a three-way tie for second behind co-leaders Savannah Boyd of Wellesley and Shivani Schmulen of Bowdoin. She made five birdies in all on the day to lead the 80-player field. 

First-year Camila Amaya (Singer Island, Fla.) is tied for 11th position after carding a 6-over 78 that included a pair of birdies, while senior Sarah Ji (Wellesley, Mass.) is tied for 22nd at 8-over after shooting an 80 on Saturday. Sophomore Laura Lu (Chengdu, China) recovered from a tough start by making three birdies and playing the final 11 holes in 2-over in her season debut to finish the round in a tie for 26 after shooting a 9-over 81. 

Sophomore Victoria Salim (Semarang, Indonesia) carded a first-round 85 and is tied for 44th place at 13-over.

Final round play will begin at 9:30 a.m. on Sunday at Rome CC. 

TOURNAMENT NOTES

•    The Beavers have been among the top five teams on the leaderboard after the first round in each of their three tournaments this fall. 

•    Babson ranks first among the 14-team field in par 5 scoring (2-over) and tied for second in par 3 scoring at 12-over. 

•    Zhu made three birdies and is one of five players in the field to play the par 5s under par on Saturday. 

•     The first round scoring average at Rome CC was 86.13.