Until this week, the Dolores High School girls’ golf team had yet to experience the sweet sensations that accompany victory.
That changed on April 20 however, when the Lady Bears stormed onto the course at Hillcrest Golf Club in Durango and finished first in a six-team field that featured Durango, Gunnison, Aztec, Kirtland and Shiprock.
As a team, the Lady Bears shot a three-round total of 321 and afterwards, second-year player Abigail Smith shared her thoughts on the victory.
“Since I’ve been on the team, we haven’t gotten a team win,” Smith said. “It was really awesome to be part of it and I’m so proud of our team.”
Leading Dolores individually was Montezuma-Cortez High School junior Kiselya Plewe, who gutted her way through cold and windy conditions to post a tournament-best round of 83.
“It was a really tough day for everybody,” said Plewe. “I struggled a lot with putting because the greens at (Hillcrest) are pretty different. I wasn’t quite on with my shots, but overall I did pretty well.”
Montezuma-Cortez High School junior Keyana Matteson’s round of 116 was the second-best of the day for Dolores.
“It was really windy and it was cold,” said Matteson. “I wasn’t familiar with the course and the greens were really fast.”
Smith rounded out the Lady Bears varsity scorers with a career-best round of 120.
Playing its second tournament of the week at Conquistador Golf Course in Cortez on April 21, the Lady Bears finished 3rd behind Montrose (266) and Palisade (283) with a score of 291.
Plewe again paced Dolores with a round of 77 and in doing so, showed off a plethora of shots that included long drives and precise iron shots. A few hiccups, including a missed 10-foot birdie putt on the third hole cost the junior however, who after the round, said that she could have played better.
“Today definitely wasn’t my day,” Plewe said. “I managed to piece together a decent round, but I wasn’t striking the ball well and I wasn’t putting well at the start. I played better as the conditions grew worse.”
Matteson also enjoyed a solid day for the Lady Bears, shooting an 18-hole score of 104.
“Some holes were good and some holes were bad,” said Matteson. “Hopefully, next time I”ll reach my goal of shooting under 100.”
Rounding out the Dolores scorers were Smith and Harley Valdez, who fired rounds of 110 and 128 respectively.
“I scored 20 shots better than my last competition,” said Valdez, who is playing her first season of high school golf. “My putting and my driving have improved.”
Next up for the Dolores team a tournament at the River Valley Ranch Golf Club in Aspen on April 24.