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By TOM ZEBOLD

USF Senior Writer

Trey Valentine's solid play throughout the season took him to the NCAA Athens Regional and he took full advantage of the opportunity in Thursday's first round.

USF's star freshman shot a 2-under 69 to get into a tie for 14th place and he's only four shots off the overall lead at the University of Georgia Golf Course. Valentine needs to be the top individual outside of the top five finishing teams to advance to the NCAA Division I Men's Golf Championship finals that take place May 29 to June 3 at The Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, Calif.

"I was proud of the way he hung in there," said head coach Chris Malloy, who is with Valentine on the trip. "He made a conscious effort to stay composed and I thought he did a heck of a job doing that today. I think it really paid off for him."

Valentine, who posted a 71.9 stroke average this season, started the round with a bogey, but he bounced back with two birdies to finish the front nine at 1 under. His back nine featured three straight birdies on holes 15-17 that were sandwiched in between bogeys on 14 and 18.

Valentine made a 25-foot putt on the par-4 18th to keep him at five strokes for the hole and Malloy saw the way he finished was a very good sign heading into Friday's second round.

"That was too bad it wasn't for a birdie, but a great putt to build momentum going into tomorrow," Malloy said. "To be just four shots off the lead should give him some comfort that he's really there."

Valentine made it to regionals by leading USF five top-10 finishes and six top-25 finishes. The Melbourne, Fla., native's top finish came early in the spring when he tied for third place at 7 under against some of the top golfers in the nation at the Seminole Intercollegiate on March 11.

Live scores of Friday's second round can be accessed online at Golfstat.com.

NCAA Athens Regional Leader Board
* player is participating as an individual rather than as a team member.
Course: University of Georgia Golf Course: Par-71, 7,253 Yards
position		player	team	scoring			rounds	total score
current	start			to par	thru	today	1
1	-	59 Kevin Aylwin	North Florida	-6	F	-6	65	65
T2	-	MJ Maguire	North Florida	-5	F	-5	66	66
T2	-	Curtis Reed (10)	Houston	-5	F	-5	66	66
T2	-	22 Bobby Wyatt	Alabama	-5	F	-5	66	66
T5	-	Ryan Eibner (10)	East Carolina	-4	F	-4	67	67
T5	-	66 James Erkenbeck	New Mexico	-4	F	-4	67	67
T5	-	Taylor Floyd	Augusta State	-4	F	-4	67	67
T5	-	5 Justin Thomas	Alabama	-4	F	-4	67	67
T5	-	63 Harold Varner (10)	East Carolina	-4	F	-4	67	67
T10	-	77 Hunter Hamrick	Alabama	-3	F	-3	68	68
T10	-	T.J. Mitchell (10)	Georgia	-3	F	-3	68	68
T10	-	Sebastian Soderberg *	Coastal Carolina	-3	F	-3	68	68
T10	-	28 Cory Whitsett	Alabama	-3	F	-3	68	68
T14	-	Brian Carter (10)	Georgia	-2	F	-2	69	69
T14	-	12 Sean Dale	North Florida	-2	F	-2	69	69
T14	-	Trey Valentine *	South Florida	-2	F	-2	69	69
T17	-	Evan Beck	Wake Forest	-1	F	-1	70	70
T17	-	Hunter Brown (10)	Texas-Arlington	-1	F	-1	70	70
T17	-	Brendan Gillins	Augusta State	-1	F	-1	70	70
T17	-	Charlie Harrison	Wake Forest	-1	F	-1	70	70
T17	-	Cameron Hollek (10)	Texas-Arlington	-1	F	-1	70	70
T17	-	Paul McConnell (10)	Texas-Arlington	-1	F	-1	70	70
T17	-	Payne McLeod (10)	UNCW	-1	F	-1	70	70
T17	-	Ryan Nagy (10)	UNCW	-1	F	-1	70	70
T17	-	David Watkins (10)	East Carolina	-1	F	-1	70	70
T26	-	Thomas Bass (10)	UNCW	E	F	E	71	71
T26	-	80 Lee Bedford	Wake Forest	E	F	E	71	71
T26	-	46 John Catlin	New Mexico	E	F	E	71	71
T26	-	Philip Chian	Long Beach State	E	F	E	71	71
T26	-	Jesse Droemer (10)	Houston	E	F	E	71	71
T26	-	32 Barrett Kelpin (10)	Iowa	E	F	E	71	71
T26	-	96 Keith Mitchell (10)	Georgia	E	F	E	71	71
T26	-	42 Kevin Phelan	North Florida	E	F	E	71	71
T26	-	Patrick Sawrey (10)	UNCW	E	F	E	71	71
T26	-	Scott Strohmeyer	Alabama	E	F	E	71	71
T26	-	Ian Vandersee (10)	Iowa	E	F	E	71	71
T37	-	James Beale *	Mercer	+1	F	+1	72	72
T37	-	74 Joe David *	Mississippi	+1	F	+1	72	72
T37	-	Joey Garber (10)	Georgia	+1	F	+1	72	72
T37	-	Joey Petronio	North Florida	+1	F	+1	72	72
T37	-	Roman Robledo (10)	Houston	+1	F	+1	72	72
T37	-	Adam Stephenson (10)	East Carolina	+1	F	+1	72	72
T43	-	Thomas Birdsey	Wake Forest	+2	F	+2	73	73
T43	-	Chris Brant (10)	Iowa	+2	F	+2	73	73
T43	-	Robin Petersson	Augusta State	+2	F	+2	73	73
T43	-	Chad Ramey *	Mississippi State	+2	F	+2	73	73
T43	-	Sean Romero	New Mexico	+2	F	+2	73	73
T43	-	James Ross (10)	Houston	+2	F	+2	73	73
T43	-	Alex Wennstam	Augusta State	+2	F	+2	73	73
T43	-	Joseph Winslow (10)	Iowa	+2	F	+2	73	73
T51	-	Will Dusenbury (10)	Houston	+3	F	+3	74	74
T51	-	Bart George	Loyola Univ-Maryland	+3	F	+3	74	74
T51	-	Gavin Green	New Mexico	+3	F	+3	74	74
T51	-	Steven Ihm (10)	Iowa	+3	F	+3	74	74
T51	-	Kevin Lim	Long Beach State	+3	F	+3	74	74
T51	-	Jacobo Pastor *	Charleston Southern	+3	F	+3	74	74
T51	-	Brandon Pena *	Florida Gulf Coast	+3	F	+3	74	74
T51	-	64 Victor Perez	New Mexico	+3	F	+3	74	74
T51	-	Nick Reach (10)	Georgia	+3	F	+3	74	74
T51	-	Xander Schauffele	Long Beach State	+3	F	+3	74	74
T61	-	Brendan Lemp	Loyola Univ-Maryland	+4	F	+4	75	75
T61	-	Ryan McCarthy	Loyola Univ-Maryland	+4	F	+4	75	75
T61	-	Jamey Taylor (10)	Texas-Arlington	+4	F	+4	75	75
T64	-	Zach Edmondson (10)	East Carolina	+5	F	+5	76	76
T64	-	Kamito Hirai *	Winthrop	+5	F	+5	76	76
T66	-	Pierre Carlsson (10)	Texas-Arlington	+6	F	+6	77	77
T66	-	Patrick McCormick	Loyola Univ-Maryland	+6	F	+6	77	77
T68	-	David Denlinger *	Charleston Southern	+7	F	+7	78	78
T68	-	Jay Mulieri	Loyola Univ-Maryland	+7	F	+7	78	78
T68	-	Clay Myers *	Jackson State	+7	F	+7	78	78
T68	-	Kevin Roy	Long Beach State	+7	F	+7	78	78
72	-	Stefan Brewer (10)	UNCW	+9	F	+9	80	80
T73	-	Derek Chang	Augusta State	+10	F	+10	81	81
T73	-	Raymond Ho	Long Beach State	+10	F	+10	81	81
75	-	Cyrus Stewart	Wake Forest	+11	F	+11	82	82