24th Annual Team Match Finals Whitney Oaks GC | Poppy Hills | Oct. 26-27, 2012
NCGA/CIF High School Girls Championship Foothill H.S. | Brookside CC | Nov. 5, 2012
Whitney Oaks GC Team Whitney Oaks GC finally broke through to win
its first ever Team Match Championship after having made it to the final four three of the past six years. It had never advanced to the Saturday championship match until this year when it defeated Corral de Tierra 27-9 in the semifinals for the Thursday League title and held off StoneTree GC 20-16 in the final. Stone- Tree had defeated San Jose CC 21-16 for the Saturday League title to reach the finals. As early matches began filtering in on Saturday,
it looked like StoneTree was on its way to the win- ner’s circle—grabbing an 11-7 lead after the first three matches. However, Whitney Oaks closed out the anchor match early, earning four of the six available points, and then earned enough in matches five and six to grab the title.
Quick Facts FIELD AND FORMAT: More than 225 clubs compete throughout the summer and fall with the top two Saturday League and final two Thursday League teams reaching the finals. The 12-person teams compete in four-ball matches concurrent with singles’ matches, with each match worth two points, or a total of six in each group.
PREVIOUS CHAMPION: Del Rio GCC STAT OF SIGNIFICANCE: More than 16,000 rounds were played to bring the final four teams to Poppy Hills for the finals, making the Team Match program the largest the NCGA offers.
WORDS OF A CHAMPION: “This group has been playing with each other for the past 10 or 12 years, so it’s nice to finally see it come to fruition this year,” said Whitney Oaks captain Gary White.
UNTIL NEXT TIME: Oct. 25-26 at Carmel Valley Ranch Nancy Xu
Foothill Girls Team After Nancy Xu birdied her final two holes of regu-
lation to shoot a 5-under 67 and force a playoff with Kathleen Scavo, Xu birdied the first sudden-death hole to win the NCGA/CIF High School Girls Individual Championship. Xu, a junior at St. Francis in Moun- tain View, did not make a bogey all day to nip Scavo, a sophomore at Justin Siena. Amador Valley’s Kimberley Liu finished one stroke out of a playoff, while Paige Lee (69), Aman Sangha (71), Sara Scarlett (71), Anna Zhou (71), Isabella Bosetti (72) and Grace Park (72) all qualified for the CIF State Championship at Red Hills in Rancho Cucamonga. Twin sisters Katie and Alex Sborav cel- ebrated their 18th birthday a day late by leading Pleasanton-based Foothill to the team champion. Kate shot 71 and Alex added a 73 to help Foothill shoot 35-over 395 and win the team title by seven strokes. The Foothill boys team also won the Nor Cal title in the spring. St. Francis, which has won eight
titles since the championship’s incep- tion 13 years ago, finished second at 402. The Sacramento-based school was led by Emily Laskin (76) and Tarah Kubes (79), and was rounded out by Carina Carter (81), Victoria Vardanega (82) and Ileana McDonald (84). Defending champion Mission San Jose finished at 404 and won a tie-breaker for third with Justin Siena to become the
final qualifier. Mission San Jose was the top Nor Cal finisher at the state championship.