On Nov. 14, the Mt. SAC women’s golf team’s season ended after placing second place at the state championship game with freshman Kylie Lau finishing third overall, making the All-State team with a score of 153.

This was one of the best finishes to a season in program history.

Not since the program achieved back-to-back state championships in 2004-2005 had SAC had a berth into the 3C2A State Championships.

This team’s core consisted of sophomores Kaitlyn Loera and Kayla Loera along with freshmen Kylie Lau, Alana Lo and Natalie Neal. With one of the players having to go out of the country during the season, another stepped in to fill her shoes so the team had enough people to score.

Four out of the five players went to Walnut High School, 2.7 miles away from SAC’s campus. This team was able to bond instantaneously and harmoniously with each other.

Every competitive championship-level team had a tightly-knit locker room.
Throughout the season after most practices and matches, the team would dine out to eat with each other, solidifying their commandery and team chemistry.

“The thing about our team is that we are really close, almost like a family,” remarked freshman Kylie Lau.

Their season started on Aug. 27, at the Desert Invitational in Palm Desert, CA, where the team brought home a second-place win. The team continued to chip away and wedge themselves apart from the group for the rest of the season to set themselves up for their ultimate goal – making a deep run into state and capturing a state title.

According to Lau, the team was dominating for most of the season with only a few games not going as well as the team planned. “Even then we went out to eat Korean barbeque as a team afterward and celebrated a teammate’s birthday,” Lau said while talking about how the team keeps their heads up after not putting up the best scores.

The team had practiced on Mondays and Wednesdays if they didn’t have a game. Some practices were held at El Prado in Chino Hills while the rest were on the putting green on Mt. SAC campus.

One helpful training the team did was going to an indoor hitting simulator about every other week. With many pro-golfers adopting this method to simulate “live-swings,” the ladies used it to their advantage to sharpen their craft and tune up their weaknesses.

On the first day of pool play, SAC placed sixth but was guaranteed to advance to the second day setting up for a major comeback. On the final day of play, they focused and came back by a remarkable 22 strokes.

The team improved their score after the first day of the tournament finishing with a score of 674 (348-236).

When asked what the team did to celebrate such a meaningful moment, “Starbucks and Pieology,” Lau said.

“We plan on going out to eat one more time once our teammate gets back to the United States,” she added.

In victory, there’s always room for family.