For the first time in program history, girls’ golf won the MIAA North/Central/West championship by outplaying the defending State champions, Wellesley, at the Country Club of Greenfield on Tuesday May 28.

Despite the cold, torrential downpours that worsened throughout the competition, making the greens nearly unplayable, the girls won with a combined score of 382. The scores that counted towards the win were shot by sophomore Chay Maloney (91), junior Liza Armstrong (99), sophomore Elise Arvanigian (103) and Westborough junior Hailey Lee-Burke (89).

According to Armstrong, because of the weather, their scores were not as low as they had hoped; however, it was still enough to win the sectional title.

“Torrential downpour affects golf in more ways than one,” Armstrong said. “You usually don’t put a raincoat on because it restricts you, so you’re soaked and cold. Also, the ball usually moves slower because the ground is wet. But it affected everybody, so that’s the nice thing. It wasn’t just you or your team that was struggling.”

In all six seasons of girls’ golf at Algonquin, this was the first time the team won districts. Junior captain Grace Tang was overjoyed by the team’s victory.

“For me personally, it felt like one of best things in my life,” Tang said. “We’ve qualified for districts and states before, but this is the first time we’ve actually won and brought home the trophy. It feels great to say we’ve beat all the teams in the district and we actually have a chance in beating a lot of the stronger teams in the state.”

The girls went in with a 14-2 record, both of the losses to Wellesley, who went in with a 16-0 record. Wellesley won the state championship last year, and the girls were shocked when they saw they beat them by eight strokes (382-390).

“I think the high was winning it,” Armstrong said.  “I think we were all really shocked when we saw Wellesley’s low was 91, we were like ‘Okay, we’re good,’ so that was nice.”

The team was persistent in doing the same thing at States on Monday, June 3. They placed third in the state with a score of 386 behind Sandwich High School (370) and Duxbury High School (382).  

Nevertheless, the team is happy about their win at districts.

“I was really happy [when we won],” Arvanigian said. “Being the first time in all six seasons of girls’ golf where we’ve won districts while dealing with the weather was pretty crazy.”