Against the top 10 teams in the country, the No. 5 Belles currently sit in fourth place in the O’Brien National Invitational at the Warren Golf Course, the home course for Saint Mary’s.

The Belles shot 324 collectively and are trailing Methodist (316), DePauw (317) and Wisconsin Eau-Claire (318).

Belles coach Mark Hamilton liked the way his team played late in the day, but admitted that they got off to a slow start.

“We bounced back well,” Hamilton said. “We had a rough beginning, but we had a good back nine.”

If anything needs to change for the Belles to climb into the lead today, Hamilton believes that the Belles just need to stay relaxed from the start.

“I wasn’t expecting that we would be quite that tense,” Hamilton said. “But we’ve got young players and we’re playing the best teams in the country so it’s quite natural that we would be a little tense.”

Freshman Marin Beagley handed in the lowest score of the day with a 74. Senior Mary Kate Boyce shot an 80, which was good for a share of 12th place on the day. Freshman Doyle O’Brien had an impressive outing, shooting 84, and freshman Paige Pollack shot an 86.

Hamilton seemed confident that if the Belles shake away some of that early-round tension, they can make a run at winning the tournament and show that they are the team to beat both regionally and nationally.

Play will resume at 8 a.m. today at the Warren Golf Course.