Charles Green
Staff Writer
The women’s golf team remains upbeat despite a bottom-table finish at the first Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Tournament, posting a team score of 764 at the challenging Via Verde Country Club last weekend.
The Leopards scored 387 in a challenging rain effected first round on Saturday. During Sundays second round the Leopards improved in glorious sunshine, shaving 10 strokes off their team score from Saturday and shot 377.
Despite the comeback, the Leopards could not move from the bottom of the leaderboard, with the first-place team being Redlands with a total score of 596.
Even with ULV struggling overall in the tournament, coach Sunny Marcum saw vast improvement by her team.
Marcum was particularly happy that her team are 25 shots better off compared to last year at this stage in SCIAC, which is a significant improvement for the Leopards.
For this conference season, Marcum is asking for her inexperienced team to improve with each round they play and keep it simple this year.
“One day at a time, one hole at a time, one shot at a time is what I tell them,” said Marcum.
Sophomore Alexandra Hauck was the Leopards’ best-placed individual throughout the stacked leaderboard.
Hauck shot consistent rounds of 94 and 92 and was particularly happy with her drives off the tee during her first round.
“I’m pretty sure I hit almost every fairway,” Hauck said.
Moving forward in the season, Hauck believes that having a positive mentality is key to development.
“A good strong mental game, fighting through it even when it gets really tough,” is key for her and her team’s improvement said Hauck.
The second-best score for the Leopards was newly appointed sophomore captain Cristina Liu with scores of 95 and 92.
Liu reflected on her mental game and seemed happy with how she controlled her emotions during the difficult tournament.
“I was mentally challenged at times, but I pushed through it,” said Liu.
The third best in scoring for ULV was junior Alexi Gonzalez with scores of 97 and 96.
Even though she was frustrated by her scores, she agrees with Marcum, that there are positives to take away from the tournament.
“From the scores we have put up we have improved, but we still got work to do. It’s a good reflection of what the season will be,” Gonzalez said.
Rounding up the scoring for the Leopards were sophomores, Carly Nicholson and Tina Chaw with scores of 101 and 97, and 110 and 119, respectively.
The women’s golf team will be hoping to continue showing improvement when they next compete in the Cal Lutheran Regals Classic at Sunset Hills Country Club in Thousand Oaks on March 16-17.
Charles Green can be reached at charles.green@laverne.edu.
