05/27/2009 - Duke Sports Information

TOLEDO, OH -- After four and a half hour weather delay, senior Michael Quagliano came out and shot four-under through 10 holes of the second round to help Duke move into eighth place heading into tomorrow's final day of stroke play at the NCAA Championship. The Blue Devils will finish the second round on Thursday morning, beginning at 6:45 a.m., prior to moving on to the final round.

Quagliano opened his second round, which began at approximately 6:10 p.m. with back-to-back birdies to get to two-under. He added a birdie on the par 4 14th hole and sank a 16-foot putt for another birdie on No. 16 to move to four-under. With darkness closing in, Quagliano parred No. 17, No. 18 and No. 1 to close the day. The Ardsley, N.Y., native hit all 10 greens in regulation and eight of 10 fairways (his drive on No. 2 was in the middle of the fairway when play ended) in the round. Quagliano is currently tied for sixth overall at two-under.

"The backside is a little easier than the front and I just got off to a good start with a nice birdie on No. 1," said Quagliano. "I just wanted to give each putt a chance to go in. I am putting really well right now so I feel if I can get it on the green I have a chance to make birdie."

Sophomore Matthew Pierce carded eight pars and one bogey to sit at one-over midway through the second round, while Adam Long (through 8), Clark Klaasen (through 9) and Wes Roach (through 10) are each two-over in the round. As the team, the Blue Devils are one-over in the second round and 14-over for the tournament.

Oklahoma State leads the tournament with an even-par 568 after shooting a four-under 280 on Wednesday. Georgia is five shots back at 573, while Michigan and Texas A&M are tied for third at six-over. The Wolverines are paired with Duke and still have to complete the second round. Arizona State (+7), Washington (+11) and Arkansas (+12) are fifth, sixth and seventh, respectively. Duke is currently eighth with Central Florida and Tennessee tied for ninth at 15-over. Central Florida will also complete its second round beginning at 6:45 a.m. on Thursday.

"Tomorrow is going to be a bit of marathon day to play," said head coach Jamie Green. "Today was a marathon day to wait and so tomorrow is going to be a lot of play. The golf course should still be soft when we find it and that will be key. We need to hit as many shots as we can in the fairway so we can hit a clean golf shots into greens that are holding well. We will try to position ourselves as well as we can after the holes that we have in the morning and then have at it for the afternoon. It will be a long day, but I know that we are going to be in position at the end of the day."

The 15 teams from Wednesday's afternoon round will complete second round action Thursday morning and then third round pairing will be determined based upon the updated standings. Third round action is expected to begin at 10 a.m. The top eight teams following 54-holes of play will advance to the match-play portion of the NCAA Championship.

Alex Ching (San Diego) holds the individual lead at six-under. He is five-under in the second round through 11 holes of play. Russell Henley (Georgia), Matt Hill (N.C. State) and Alexander Sitompul (Michigan) are tied for second at four-under. Henley and Hill are through the second round while Sitompul still has eight holes remaining in the round. Quagliano is in a group of four players tied for sixth at two-under.
 

NOTES
*** Wednesday's second round was delayed from 11:35 a.m. to 4:05 p.m. because of thunderstorms in the area.

*** Quagliano had four birdies and six pars in the opening 10 holes of the second round ... he has a team-high seven birdies for the tournament.

*** Duke's second round at the NCAA Central Regional was also rained out and required completion the following day.

*** Quagliano's four-under is tied for the third lowest round of the second round.