Girls golf anticipates good season

Head coach: David Gragnola

Last season’s record: 6-1-4

Last season recap: The team finished fifth in its division for SCVAL, but did not qualify as a team for CCS. Senior Sarah Lo qualified for CCS individually, placing 54th out of 99 players.

Key additions: Freshman Iris Lee and Jane Loo

Key losses: No. 3 player Cynthia Yang, No. 5 player Raina Kolluri, No. 6 player Anya Herne

Key matchups: Los Gatos on Sept. 11, Lynbrook on Oct. 9

Star players: No. 1 player junior Janelle Jin, No. 2 player senior Emily Lo and No. 3 player sophomore Sally Kim

League: Santa Clara Valley Athletics League, De Anza Division

After losing four graduating seniors, the girls emerged from tryouts on Aug. 17 with scores in the mid 50s and lower, placing four new freshmen on the team.

Last year, the girls experienced early setbacks, but followed a promising trend as they approached leagues. The Falcons were ultimately unable to win their final match against Lynbrook, in part due to playing on a muddy course that was longer than they were accustomed to.

“Last season went by really fast and it was fun as the last year for last year’s seniors,” No. 1 player senior Emily Lo said, “but it was also pretty time consuming and stressful with close results of the matches.”

Lo and the team anticipate a good season, and hope that they can win more matches with the new additions to the team. In addition, Lo believes that practicing on the courses for away matches beforehand will boost their performance.

With minimal changes to their lineup, the traveling team now includes freshmen Iris Lee and Jane Loo, as well as junior Kristin Murakami, who jumped to No. 4, showing major improvement from the 2016 season.

“It would be so exciting to finally make CCS as a team,” Jin said, “because we haven't yet in the past three years that I have been on the team.”

The Falcons’ first match will take place on Sept. 11, at Saratoga’s County Club, against Los Gatos High School.