The girls varsity golf team ended its season after competing at the IHSA state tournament that took place Oct. 18 to Oct. 19. Amelia Van Vuren ‘26 and Isabella Evans ‘25 both qualified, and Van Vuren placed within the top 60 of all players. Overall, the team worked to accomplish their goals throughout the season, head varsity coach Jeff Johnson said.

“Our biggest challenges have been the strength of our conference,” Johnson said. “In the West Suburban [Conference], we have some very good golf teams with some great players.”

At the conference invite, the team placed sixth overall, Johnson said. Then, following a fourth-place finish at regionals, four players advanced to sectionals: Evans, Van Vuren, Isabella Caulfield ‘25, and Mekayla Genovesi ‘27. Van Vuren, tying for seventh place, moved up to the state level competition along with Evans.

“We want to be competitive with a very tough West Suburban Conference,” Johnson said. “We want to improve as a team and as individuals, [and] we want to have fun playing golf with our teammates.”

After last year’s success of an overall 10th-place state finish and four players qualifying, the team had high expectations for themselves going into the season.

“During this year’s season, I hoped to accomplish getting as far as we possibly could as a team, like last year,” Van Vuren said. “Even though we just missed making it as a team to sectionals, we still have a majority of our team advancing, which is very exciting.”

Some significant accomplishments this season included finishing top 10 at three large invitational meets, Johnson said. At the Plainfield North invitational, the team finished ninth out of 20 teams and held onto a seventh-place finish at the Providence Catholic and Naperville North invitationals. While the team had a final dual meet win/loss record of 7-2, they had to overcome many obstacles along the way. 

“Some challenges we faced this season were that we are a smaller team, and a lot of times girls have conflicts [like] college visits or get sick, so we try to make the most of our matches and get everybody the playing time they deserve,” Van Vuren said. 

Achieving her goal, Van Vuren placed top 10 at four events, she said. This included two invitationals, conference, and regionals. 

“One of my highlights this year was getting to host one of our matches at Chicago Highlands this year,” Van Vuren said. “As a team, we don’t really get to play courses like Highlands often and it was a really fun experience for the whole team getting to play a more difficult course, and we won that match against Sandburg.”

After school, the team practiced at Flagg Creek Golf Course and attended invitationals on Saturdays. In total, the team played 14 meets: five home and nine away. 

“A challenge I’ve faced in this year’s season has definitely been adjusting to different courses and greens in our matches and invites,” Caulfield said. “I was hoping this year to make it past regionals, [and] I did as an individual, so I’m happy with that. Some highlights this year were definitely pasta parties, getting to bond with teammates, and meeting the new underclassmen.”