Over the past three years, girls’ golf has taken home third and second place medals in SPC. The team took home first place for the first time this year, thanks to a standout performance by junior Morgan Sholeen.

Denise Pan (‘20) and Christine Wang (‘20), both consistent top scorers for the girl’s golf team this season, took the first two spots on the St. John’s team at Cypresswood Golf Club on April 24th and 25th. It takes three individual scores to make a full team score at SPC, and that third place spot for the team could make or break the tournament.

At the end of day one, St. John’s had only a narrow three-point lead on Episcopal. Sholeen returned as the last golfer of the day with a performance that gave the St. John’s team a more comfortable seven-point difference with Episcopal.

Coach Jack Soliman attributes the win to the increasing number of serious players joining the team every year as well as Sholeen, “the behind-the-scenes unsung hero of the tournament.”

Episcopal and St. John’s competed neck-to-neck on day two, but Sholeen made all the difference by coming in with the third best score.

“The compelling story was Morgan Sholeen completing her round before everyone else. Her score made it impossible for Episcopal to catch us down the stretch,” Soliman said.

Sholeen along with Pan, Wang, and Grace Wilson (‘17) earned all-SPC honors.

“I actually enjoyed playing fifth seed. It was a lot less pressure,” Sholeen said.

Both Episcopal and St. John’s broke the previous SPC team score record, which was 499. The teams scored 480 and 464, respectively.

The Cypresswood course is generally more difficult than the traditional SPC course, Woodforest, due to narrower fairways and slower greens.

“The Cypress course is more difficult indicating that this year’s play was that much more impressive,” Soliman said.