After a long hiatus, Hartford High fielded a girls golf team this fall and finished its first season of a program rebirth strong, tying for third at the VPA Division II state championship at Neshobe Golf Club in Brandon, Vt., on Tuesday.
Sophomore Isabella Lombardi (18 over par) led the Hurricanes, who shot 59 over as a team, 10 strokes behind champion Rice. The Canes’ other scorer, junior Ayela Emery, shot 41 over, while junior Vivian Tsouknakis shot 56 over.
Lombardi’s play earned her the top individual spot in Division II and the second-best finish among all girls in both VPA divisions, solidifying her spot at New Englands later this month.
“We’re incredibly proud of them. They battled through a day — for a lot of them this is really their second time playing 18 holes,” said Canes head coach Erin Stevens in a telephone interview.
“We’re just so impressed with their ability to stick with it, and it’s a challenging golf course, so it was really cool to see them just be able to handle that. And we didn’t play double-par today, which they’re normally used to, and their attitude about it was great.”
Even before Tuesday’s results, Stevens liked what she saw with her squad. The Canes’ coach and athletic director Jeff Moreno suggested this was the first girls golf team at Hartford to play in matches in about 20 years.
“I’ve been so impressed with the girls team so far. With varied levels of experience, it is always something that has a bit of unknowns, but the first match with all three of them was one of those moments that will stand out in my coaching experiences of the last 14 years,” Stevens wrote in an email on Monday.
“I’m not sure if the girls themselves understood how significant of a moment this was, but when they are older I bet they will look back on this and realize what they started,” she added.
The reborn girls golf program came together in the spring with two experienced golfers in Lombardi and Emery, along with Tsouknakis, who was new to the sport but “has perfect temperament for learning such a precise sport,” Stevens wrote.
Throughout the season, the Hartford girls showed they belonged, notably winning the SVL championship last month, which was the first time a Canes girls golf team has won a league title in history.
“These three have started something special, especially with multiple girls on our middle school team who can look up to the current three and see that there is a future of girls golf at Hartford for them,” Stevens wrote.
After a successful first season, Stevens is hopeful about the program’s future.
“My goal is that, in 20 years, we are celebrating the 20th anniversary of the (renewed) girls golf program,” she wrote.
“With the efforts of our middle school and JV staff, we have created a pipeline that we hope continues to grow a love of the game for our middle school athletes and that girls can see themselves represented in the sport that often can feel male-dominated.”
