ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. – The No. 11 University of North Georgia (UNG) women's golf team rallied on Tuesday in the LMU Spring Kickoff for a fifth place finish at St. Johns Golf and Country Club.

UNG shot a combined three-over par on Tuesday to post its best round of the tournament and finish at 42-over in total. No. 23 Barry finished three shots ahead of the Nighthawks at 39-over while No. 18 Rogers State ended at 36-over. No. 21 Palm Beach Atlantic came in second place with a score of 30-over and No. 2 Wingate won the event by 18 shots with a team score of 12-over par.

With no golfer shooting a round worse than 74 (two-over) on Tuesday, UNG had the best leaderboard improvement of any team in the 17-team field. The Nighthawks climbed two spots on the final day thanks to even-par 72s from senior Ellie Rippee and freshman Ellie Jane Riner.

Rippee went bogey free with two birdies in her first 14 holes to aid her best round of the tournament. She finished the event in 15th place on the individual leaderboard, marking her second top 15 outing of the season.

Sophomore Abby Franks recorded her third top 15 performance of the year with a two-over 74 on Tuesday as she ended the event in 11th place. Franks has now finished 14th or better in three of her last four events.

One of UNG's most impressive performances of the day came from Riner. After finishing the first two rounds at 15-over, Riner went on a birdie rally on Tuesday to post yet another good performance.

The rookie started the day three-over after her first four holes with a bogey and double-bogey consecutively on holes 10 and 11. She steadied things with a birdie at 12 before eventually going on a big run. On 17, Riner recorded her second birdie of the day. When she turned back to the start of the front nine, Riner sat at one-over for the round. She then rattled off four straight birdies on holes 1 through 4. The run consisted of five birdies in a matter of six holes as she finished with an even-par 72 to tie Rippee for the best Nighthawk round of the tournament. Riner finished in 27th place.

Senior Jadin Ware and junior Cora Mount tied each other in 19th place at 13-over for the event as Ware carded a final-round 73 (one-over) while Mount ended the outing with a four-over 76. 

The Nighthawks now look forward to the Low Tide Intercollegiate at Dunes West Golf & River Club in Charleston, S.C. UNG finished third in the event last year as Rippee posted the highest finish of her career in a tie for first place. This year's iteration of the 54-hole tournament starts on Monday, Feb. 24