The Siloam Springs girls golf team has improved over the course of the 2014 season. Now the Lady Panthers will get to measure that improvement for the final time this season.
The Lady Panthers will participate in the Class 6A State Girls Golf Tournament held Monday and Tuesday at Greystone Country Club in Cabot.
The team plans to leave early today and arrive in Cabot around noon, where they'll play a practice round later today.
The top half of the teams after Monday's round will qualify for Tuesday's final round. Also the top individuals that are not on a qualifying team will also play Tuesday.
Siloam Springs coach Michael Robertson said the Lady Panthers will have their work cut out for them at Greystone.
"It's a tough course -- really tough," he said. "Greystone will be like putting on glass almost. It'll be super-fast greens. The course is pretty long, really up and down with slopes and fairways. The good thing is, it's the same course for everybody, and it'll be really nice for our kids to play."
All five members of the Lady Panthers team will participate. The top three scores will count.
The Lady Panthers are coming off a 156-157 victory over Springdale Har-Ber on Thursday at Razorback Golf Course in Fayetteville.
Junior Amanda Glass carded a 49, while freshman Brinkley Beever shot 52 and sophomores Halle Hevener 55, Bailey Turner 58 and Alli Tolliver 67 rounded out the Lady Panthers' scoring. Har-Ber's Joanna Keck shot 47 for medalist. Hadley Apple added a 54 for Har-Ber, followed by Bri Pearson 56, Madison McAnnally 67 and Sam Morkovich 70.
The win for the Lady Panthers was one of their better matches as a team this season.
"They're all playing a lot better," Robertson said. "We've been playing better all year. We knew it would be a progression."
Coming into the season, the Lady Panthers only had two years of varsity experience on the team, and all of that belonged to Glass.
"They've worked their butts off," Robertson said. "They've slowly gotten better and gotten a better understanding."
The Lady Panthers' goals for the state tournament are simple, try to play well enough on Monday to advance to the second day.
"I'm hoping we go down there and play well and make that second day and get to play another 18 holes on a great course," Robertson said.
Panthers
The Siloam Springs boys golf team wrapped up their final regular season match with a 160-164 win against Har-Ber on Thursday.
Junior Aaron Jones carded a 35 and finished as medalist. Senior Brandon Coale shot a 37, while sophomore Cody Beyer shot 41, senior Cody Casebeer 47 and senior Brendan Lee 48.
Josh Benford led Har-Ber with a 37, while Matt Philpott shot 41, Nick Hancock 42, Ian Mohorn 44 and Eric Ogle 46.
The Panthers now have the week off before the Class 6A State Boys Tournament in Jonesboro, which is Oct. 6-7.
Sports on 09/28/2014