2021 Birdie Fest (Round One)

SAN RAFAEL, Calif. – There was a pair of changes to the Academy of Art women's golf record books after the first round of Birdie Fest on Monday, as junior Anahi Servin broke her own record for lowest single-round score in ART U history with a 8-under-par 63. Her day helped ART U to set the program record for lowest team tournament round score, with the Knights sitting atop the leaderboard as a squad at a combined 2-over-par 286.

Aptly named Birdie Fest, Servin found plenty of birdies during her opening round, totaling a tournament high of nine on the day including a streak of five straight on holes 11 through 15. Servin's 63 broke her previous tournament-round record of 64 that she shot on Apr. 23, 2018 during the PacWest Championships (also a PacWest record), putting her four strokes in front of Lexi Nielsen of Sonoma State and Ebba Wernered of Holy Names.

For ART U, the combined 286 just edges out the 288 shot by the Knights during the second round of the 2019 PacWest Championships, and gives them a four-stroke lead over the second-place Seawolves. This marks the second consecutive tournament that Academy of Art has held the team lead after round one, doing so last week at the PLNU Sea Lions Invitational before ultimately finishing in fourth. 

Also in the top 10 for the Urban Knights was the combination of junior Iveta Posledni and sophomore Jae Eun Park, as the duo tied for ninth place after carding 3-over-par 74's. The scores came in different fashions, as Posledni dropped the second-most pars in the tournament (14) while Park collected three birdies. Helping ART U's score in a tie for 15th place is Napat "Plern" Rattanaprakarn, also grabbing a total of three birdies before the day was through. 

The Knights look to hold their lead as Birdie Fest comes to an end tomorrow, with the Urban Knights tee time for round two set at 8 am.