PALM DESERT, Calif. --- Washington and Lee University first-year Toral Bhatt fired a 3-under par 69 to garner a one shot lead and power the Generals to second place in the team table following the first round of competition on Tuesday at the Division III Women's Golf Championship at Desert Willow Golf Resort in Palm Desert, California.

Bhatt, the ODAC Rookie of the Year and winner of the ODAC individual medal at Williamsburg National last month, began her round on the par-4 seventh hole and posted a clean 2-under opening nine holes. She added three more birdies to offset a pair of bogeys on the back nine, but left the course feeling good after a birdie on her closing hole the par-5 455-yard sixth hole.

Bhatt's efforts helped nationally 10th-ranked Washington and Lee to second place at 4-over 292 after the opening 18 holes on the Mountain View course, just one shot back of No. 3 Carnegie Mellon University.

Randolph-Macon College also had a strong first day with the No. 7 Yellow Jackets tying with No. 5 Amherst College at 12-over 300. Junior Morgan Mussatt was the top RMC player on the day, joining six other players including WLU first-year Bella Scucchi in 11th place at even-par 72.

Statistically, Bhatt tied with Ella Han from Middlebury College and Sydney Richards from Lexington-area neighbor Southern Virginia University atop the leaderboard in par-4 scoring (-2, 3.80). Bhatt's five birdies tied with three other players for the third-most in the round, while Mussatt tallied the lone eagle of the day on the par-5 478-yard ninth hole, which was her second hole of the day.

Washington and Lee was second-best on par-3 holes (+4, 3.20), while the Generals tied for second on par-5's (-4, 4.80), fourth in birdies (14), and tied for fourth on par-4's (+11, 4.22). Randolph-Macon tied for third in pars (55), and tied for fifth in par-3 (+6, 3.30) and par-5 (-1, 4.95) scoring.

Washington and Lee and Randolph-Macon both switch to the Firecliff course for Wednesday's second round. Click HERE for second round tee times.