Greenwave girls golfers could still qualify for individual state slots

Although the Greenwave girls golf team may be behind as a whole based on the current ranking of its individual members, one of the players may make it to the top five as an individual.

Senior Sara Evans is currently ranked fifth in the individual bracket with fellow senior Viviane Ugalde close behind. Though the difference of Fallon’s representation at state is starkly different from last year when four of the top six girls who were chosen from the individual bracket came from Fallon, coach Phil Pinder recognizes the strengths of his individual golfers while acknowledging their room for improvement as a team.

“We’re still struggling a little bit from an overall scoring standpoint,” Pinder said. “So we’ve got to go back and spend more time on what can bring our scores down and concentrate on that. We’ve been playing tough courses, and the conditions have been tough, so the scores have been higher. But again we have to do a better job of identifying what we need to bring the scores down and be more consistent.”

Pinder said he feels the two seniors, Evans and Ugalde, have shown the most improvement, attributing it to their sense of urgency as seniors and their desire to make state before graduation. These three seniors, a sophomore and two freshman currently make up the small roster of the Lady Wave golf team.

“Until we get more depth and more numbers, we’ll have to wait and see what everybody does in the offseason,” Pinder said when asked if he could see the underclassmen of this team make more progress toward State next year. “A lot of our kids play other sports, and this is a secondary sport for them. I don’t think they put in as much time as the kids we compete against, especially from a team level compared to Lowry, Spring Creek (and) Elko.”

Though Fernley came in third place last year, Pinder pointed out that this year they have the No. 1 player in the league, Brittany Evans.

“Have we achieved it, no, but for us to go to state as a team, we would have to have, like a lot of these other schools that go to state, at least 10-15 golfers competing,” he said. “That kind of competition within itself helps.”

Among the players from Fallon who made it on the roster last year, senior Hannah Evans also made the top three lowest averages of her team at 145 behind Ugalde’s 129 and Sara Evans’ 113.

“(Hannah) is just struggling from a scoring point and consistency,” said Pinder, recalling Evans’ performance this year compared to last year where she placed in the top six individuals by a 10th (percentile), with an impressive low-round of 90 last year compared to her low round of 121 this year. Because of this small fraction with Evans and another girl’s score, Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association (NIAA) took the top six girls instead of the top five like it normally does.

“She’s got the game, she’s still trying to put it all together,” Pinder said. “She’s still got a lot of potential. A lot of these kids, because of the level they’re at, are still earning their swing so to speak and the little things they have to do out on the course, the adjustments. But they’ve all got potential.”

The Lady Wave’s next matches will be Wednesday at Dayton and a home league-match Thursday at 11 a.m.