Golf putts to first place with victory over Stags

by Nate Silva
Staff Writer

In hopes of bouncing back from its poor showing at the Cal Lutheran tournament, the ULV men's golf team teed off on their home course of Sierra La Verne Wednesday afternoon against Claremont-Mudd-Scripps.

The Leopards would come out on top in this Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference battle, besting the Stags by nine strokes.

La Verne turned in a 4-player team total of 299, holding off the visitors' 308 scorecard.

The course par of 71 was held by only one of the eight players who recorded official scores.

La Verne's Andrew Garcia shot 34 and the front nine, and followed that up with a 37 on the final nine holes, to hold par.

"It was really nice for Andrew Garcia to have a really good day in a really big match," said ULV head coach Rex Huigens of Garcia's performance.

Just like Garcia, many players' scores went up on the back nine.

Sophomore Joey Murray explained, "A lot of teams have trouble on the back nine."

A home course advantage kept the Leopards ahead.

"The course knowledge really helped us," Murray said.

La Verne, which dropped to No. 19 in the national poll, showed they belonged in the top ten by knocking off CMS, which is No. 8. The win also gives the Leopards a share of the SCIAC lead with No. 6 Redlands, each team holding a 6-1 record in league.

The other top three Leopards' scores were Justin Assael, Joe Skovron and Tom Reese, who kept La Verne under 300 with scores of 75, 76, and 77 respectively.

"(299) is a good score for us," says Huigens. "Any time you stay under 300 is good. That's an average of 75 a man."

The lowest nine-hole score was 34, shared between Assail and Garcia, each shooting a front nine score of 34.

John Fischer led CMS with a score of three-over par 74.

Following today's play the team feels it is gaining momentum at just the right time.

"We've got a good chance going into conference," Murray said.

The first of two 18-hole SCIAC tournaments will be held next week at Redlands Country Club on Monday at noon.

"Hopefully we can use today's match as a springboard going into conference," Huigens said.

Consistency has been a problem for this young La Verne team which have played impressively against some tough opponents, but struggled at other times.

The team admits they did not play extremely well on Wednesday, but it was an impressive turnaround from their disappointing performance the week before.

Huigens describes his team as very capable, but they just need to put their whole game together.

The Leopards will have a few opportunities to prove themselves in SCIAC before the season is complete.

Following Monday's round at Redlands, the SCIAC teams will come to Sierra La Verne, La Verne's home course, for another tournament on April 24.

These two tournaments will set up seeding for SCIAC's final tournament.The three-round, 36-hole SCIAC Championship will conclude the Leopards' regular season at the end of April.

Huigens has confidence in his team, and likes the position that they have put themselves in at this point in the season.

"We've played very well and very poorly at times. I just hope the good team shows up and I think it will," Huigens said.