By Austin Block
The boysâ golf team will end its season tomorrow with a home match against Loyola, with whom the team shared the league championship last year. The team played Loyola yesterday after press time.
After beginning the league season 1-3, the team won back to back matches against Alemany, shooting a season-low 184 in the first of the two wins. From there, the season took a strange turn. The team squared off against St. Francis twice on back to back days and both times the teamsâ top five scores added up to the same total.
The Wolverines won the first match on the strength of its sixth score but lost the second in the same fashion.
Head Coach Scott Wood said he had never seen that happen before.
“It was exciting to say the least,” he said.
The team, which doesnât normally have team pratices, has had a few practices recently to prepare for the Loyola matches.
“Itâs our big rival, but weâre having more team practices, which really do a lot,” Ernie Zaferis â11 said. “[Weâre] just trying to treat every match leading up to that like itâs playoffs. We canât do anything unless we win that match, and [weâre] just trying to have the right mind going into it.”
More recently, the team split its two game series with Chaminade, losing the first match on April 20 by 9 shots but winning its home match two days later by four.
“I thought we showed heart to come back and beat Chaminade at home after losing handily at their place,” Wood said. “The guys stepped up and earned a win.”
Wood said the teamâs consistency has improved over the course of the season.
The team also competed in the Championâs Invitational in Palm Springs on April 9 and 10 and finished 13th in a 28-team field. Team Captain Jeff Wibawa â10, ranked as the 5th best junior player in the nation by the Polo Golf Rankings, and Charlie Benell â12 finished in the top 20 individually.
“We have a really young team and we started off a little rough but weâre coming together now,” Zaferis said. “Every week somebody has a good round. Itâs kind of fueling the energy of the team and keeping us going. Weâre getting close to being ready for playoffs.”
The team is currently in 5th in league behind Chaminade, Loyola, St. Francis, and Notre Dame. League Finals are on May 5 and 6.
As of press time, the Wolverines still had a chance at making the playoffs, though if St. Francis beat Chaminade yesterday they are shut out of the playoffs.
“A lot of the teams have gotten stronger and been improving,” Zaferis said. “I think with the team we have now we have just as good a shot as anyone else. Week by week weâre getting better at bonding as a team. It should be a good fight.”
