FAYETTEVILLE — With each of its three matches so far this season, the Richmond Senior High School girls’ golf team has shown overall improvement.
That growth continued Monday in the Lady Raiders’ third and final nine-hole Mid-South Conference match.
Competing against golfers from four other schools, including three teams that qualified for the overall score, Richmond shot another season-low on the scorecard.
Playing the front nine at King’s Grant Golf and Country Club, the Lady Raiders finished tied for second place with a final score of 165.
Monday’s outing marked a 10-stroke improvement from last week’s match at Anderson Creek. Richmond has improved by 15 shots since the season started, the largest improvement by any team in the conference.
“I’m so proud of the girls,” head coach Kevin Wallace said. “They continue to grow and improve each week, both as individual golfers and as a team.
“Being able to take 10 strokes off our team score is a big deal. It’s proof that their hard work is paying off and that we are able to compete with the other teams in the conference.”
Winning the match was Pinecrest High School with a team score of 120. Tying with the Lady Raiders for second place was Jack Britt High School (165).
Fourth place belonged to Overhills High School (179), while Pine Forest High School didn’t have enough golfers to qualify for the team score.
Three of the four Lady Raider golfers shot season-low rounds. Leading the way was sophomore Talley Webb, who made the biggest improvement between matches, with a round total of 44.
Webb took an impressive eight shots off her scorecard from last week’s score, and is down 14 strokes since the first match.
Freshman Cadence McIver was next on the board, finishing her round with a 60. That was one stroke better than her previous best score, which she posted in the season opener.
Sophomores Kennedy Baldwin and Bayden Bendell both ended the round with a score of 61. That marked Bendell’s lowest outing this fall by one shot and Baldwin was just one shot over her best round score this season.
Through three matches this season, Richmond has placed third twice and tied for second once, totaling 9.5 points in the conference standings. That puts the team in third place behind Pinecrest (15 points) and Jack Britt (11.5 points).
The Lady Raiders will host their lone MSC match of the season next Monday in what will be the first 18-hole match this season. Richmond and the other MSC teams will tee off at Foxfire Resort at 2 p.m.
