Following an undefeated season in the De Anza division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League last year, the Varsity Girls Golf team ended with another successful season this November. The team finished its regular season with a record of 9-3. Senior Katie Hwang, who has been on the team since her freshman year, remained optimistic about going into the SCVAL league finals on Tuesday, Oct. 28, at Santa Theresa Golf Course.
“We had a pretty stable team, and we ended up going and doing pretty well,” Hwang said. “When we found out we won, I think we were all just really surprised and proud that we were able to win leagues and qualify for CCS.”
The team took home first place at league finals with a total team score of 366. This title gave the team an automatic bid to the CCS tournament at Laguna Seca Golf Ranch on Tuesday, Nov. 4. According to freshman Ellie Kong, the team didn’t go in with high expectations. Despite this, it brought home a third-place finish.
“We didn’t know how we would do, so we just wanted to have fun,” Kong said. “It was really fun when we got the trophy as a team, because we did a lot of work to get it. It was really rewarding.”
The team’s success at CCS finals extended its season even more, granting it a spot at the NorCal regional finals at Berkeley Country Club on Monday, Nov. 10. With a similar mindset to Kong when going into the NorCal tournament, sophomore Melody Liu was excited to compete.
“We didn’t really have high expectations, since we were already proud that we were able to get to NorCal,” Liu said. “We knew that there were a lot of good teams there, and it was just a good opportunity for us to be able to go. Coach [Ken] Gan kept telling us ‘We don’t need to win, we should just be happy that we’re here.’”
The team tied for fourth at the NorCal finals, missing the third-place mark by just one stroke. Despite this near feat, Hwang says the team is still grateful for the experience.
“At the end of the day, we were just happy to get to NorCal because we had never done that before,” Hwang said. “We were really happy to be there and play at the course because it was really nice.”
Kong shares a similar sentiment. With this being her first year playing golf at the high school level, she enjoyed the experience that playing in NorCal brought. She says she is grateful for the community that the MVHS team provided her throughout this year.
“Since golf is an individual sport, there’s a lot of pressure on yourself,” Kong said. “Going into high school golf made me like golf more. I started liking it more, and I wanted to put more practice in. Next year, I hope we can make it to states as a team and continue to get better.”
Two members of the MVHS team qualified individually for the CIF State Championship on Wednesday, Nov. 19 at the Poppy Hills Golf Course. Junior Addison Lee tied for 11th place and sophomore Melody Liu tied for 36th place.
