HOWEY-IN-THE-HILLS, Fla. -- UIC finished the second day of the 2019 Horizon League Women's Golf Championship at Mission Inn Resort on Monday and the Flames remain in fifth place after 36 holes at the conference tournament.

On a day when scoring slightly increased across the board, UIC improved by a shot on Monday morning and carded a score of 327, 35-over par. The Flames are at 71-over par, 655, for the tournament and 17 strokes behind the team in fourth place after two days, Cleveland State. UIC was one of four teams in the eight-team field to improve its team total during the second round. The average score for the field on Monday was 81.72, down from 82.17 on Sunday.

"We're right there and we're going to go out and try to make a move up into fourth place tomorrow," said UIC head coach Mat Blair. "We're really just struggling with our short game a little bit and if we can dial that in, we have a great chance."

Claudia Stampa posted the lowest score of the day for the Flames with a mark of 5-over par, 78. That is the best total of the tournament for any member of UIC's lineup and it helped her jump four spots on the individual leaderboard into a tie for 11^th place entering Tuesday's final round at 13-over par, 159. Stampa was 2-over par through eight holes before she carded the first of two birdies on the ninth. The San Sebastian, Spain, native was hampered by double bogeys on holes 12 and 13 before making her second birdie on the par-5 14^th hole. She is tied for fourth in the field in par-4 scoring at 4.28 strokes per hole (5-over par).

"I'm really proud of Claudia [Stampa]," said Blair. "She had two bad holes back-to-back, but played really solid the rest of the day."

Kelly Sterling, the conference's defending individual medalist, shot 9-over par, 82, for the second time in as many days. She is inside the top 20 and tied for 17^th place after two days. The Mokena, Ill., native is tied for fourth in the tournament with 22 pars in two days. Meghan Kramp improved by one shot Monday with a 10-over par score of 83. She has been UIC's top performer on the par-5 holes, shooting 2-over on the tournament (5.20). Kramp is tied for 26^th entering the final round.

The largest improvement of any member of the Flames lineup belonged to sophomore Shivani Majmudar. The Barrington, Ill., native shot 11-over par 84 on Monday, which marked a four-stroke improvement from the first round total.

UIC Scores:
5. UIC - 328+327=655
---
T11. Claudia Stampa - 81+78=159
T17. Kelly Sterling - 82+82=164
T26. Meghan Kramp - 84+83=167
36. Stephanie Mroz - 81+90=171
T37. Shivani Majmudar - 88+84=172

The Flames will be paired with Northern Kentucky during Tuesday's third and final round. The Norse were in eighth place following the first round, but moved up two spots by shooting 31-over par, 323, on Monday. NKU is five shots in back of UIC and two shots in front of Green Bay. The first group, featuring Majmudar, will tee off on the Las Colinas Course at 7:10 a.m. CT. Stampa will be the final UIC player to open the round at 7:42 a.m.