Moritz a good addition for WW South
With five returnees from last year's fourth-place state lineup, the Wheaton Warrenville South girls golf team already had high hopes.
The addition of sophomore transfer Hadley Moritz has strengthened them.
On Monday Moritz enjoyed her best round this season with a par-36 for medalist honors in the Tigers' 155-228 victory over visiting Glenbard North in DuPage Valley Conference action at Arrowhead.
"Today went very well. Greens in regulation definitely (helped), and my putts were a lot better," Moritz said, who arrived in mid-July from Noblesville, Ind., just northeast of Indianapolis.
"The golf team's been super welcoming and everybody at school has been super nice. I'm so excited. Hearing from their experiences last year and how good we've been doing, I think we really do have a chance to go downstate."
Sophomore Sarah Hauenstein, who tied for 18th at state in 2014, also broke 40, followed by juniors Annalee Dannegger and Priya Desai and Emma Field.
This also was the best round this season for the Tigers (4-1, 4-0) heading into a key DVC dual Wednesday against Neuqua Valley at Naperbrook.
"The results are pretty good so far, but we still have a little left. I don't think we're quite there yet," WW South coach Art Tang said. "The girls worked really hard this summer, my top five or six. They have expectations that are probably as high as mine, if not higher. They push themselves."
With the graduation of No. 1 golfer Kelly Anderson, their top 2014 state finisher, team returnees logged hours of summer golf and organized Tiger Tuesdays to play together at Arrowhead. Dannegger said she and Hauenstein have seen progress from additional personal training with The Players Service at Carriage Greens in Darien.
"We don't have anyone that can shoot super low like Kelly did, but we're all consistent," Desai said. "We've all improved a lot from last year so our team, I would say, is maybe even a little stronger."
There were rumblings during the spring that Moritz would come after her father's job transfer, but Tang said he took a wait-and-see approach. One big question was which high school she would attend because both of her parents are Wheaton North graduates.
As a freshman, Moritz said she missed qualifying for the Indiana state meet individually by 3 strokes and her Noblesville team by 5. She arrived in time to attend some Tiger Tuesdays.
"That was great to have Hadley move in. After losing Kelly we were kind of unsure what our team would be like, but (she) has made our team so much stronger," Dannegger said. "Hopefully we can get top three in state. I think we can do it if everyone has a great day down there."
Leading Glenbard North (0-4, 0-3) were Samantha King, Rebecca Ellers, Samantha Sowa and Alex Baertschi.
King, Ellers and Baertschi return from last year's regional lineup. Sowa, a junior, is a first-year varsity regular who joined the team as a freshman without any golf lessons. Sowa wanted to play a high school sport and try something new.
"My dad always admired the sport, but he never got to try it so he's like, 'I'll buy you clubs if you teach me how to play.' I really enjoy it. And the girls are so nice and I just love to meet new people," Sowa said.
"I've improved from last year by hitting definitely much farther. I've cut down at least 10, 12 strokes from my average. This will be a good season. Even if I don't play well, I just want to have fun on the course."