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Northview beats Clay City in annual county rivalry match
With the way the final week of the high school girls golf regular season fell, Tuesday night’s county rivalry match between Clay City and Northview at Forest Park Golf Course looked a little different.
The Eels, playing in the Southwestern Indiana Athletic Conference tournament at Phil Harris Golf Course in Linton on Wednesday while also needing a few of their golfers to play in one more match to earn varsity letters for the season, shook up the entirety of their lineup like a snow globe, flipping the bottom four to the top and the top four to the bottom.
“I wanted to give everybody the chance to play and earn their letter,” said Clay City head coach Elissa Daniel. “I think the change worked because everybody was playing really relaxed and wasn’t feeling much pressure.”
Northview, meanwhile, was playing its sixth match in eight days. And with the sectional tournament taking place on Friday, head coach Chris Hawk didn’t want his group to stress about the rivalry match and instead told the Lady Knights to use it as a quasi-practice round for the postseason.
“With this being our sixth match in eight days – it has taken a heavy toll on us – I told the girls to use this match as a practice round for Friday,” said Hawk. “We’ve struggled a little bit lately, so it was good for us to play tonight before Friday.”
Both teams accomplished what they set out to do entering Tuesday night, but as Hawk noted, regardless of the circumstances, he will take a win over Clay City any day of the week. And that’s what the Knights capped the regular season with, defeating the Eels 189-238.
“No matter what, we’ll take this win 10 times out of 10,” said Hawk.
His biggest takeaway from the win? The strong play of Kailee James, who was the night’s low medalist with a score of 46, continued.
Hawk also made sure to remind the group, that’s chalked full of juniors, that Tuesday marked the final regular season match of their penultimate season at the high school level. With the end growing nearer, the second-year head coach encouraged his team to savor every second from now until September 2025.
“Kailee James posted another low score to continue her incredible season,” Hawk said. “Another thing I was really harping on with them tonight was telling them that they’re going to be seniors after this, and with it being the last match of the regular season, I wanted to remind them to just appreciate and take it all in.”
For Daniel, she liked the way Libby Zurcher struck the ball. She also pointed out the confidence the junior played with while playing at No. 1 in the lineup should be beneficial for her entering next season.
“[Libby], who we had in the No. 1 spot tonight, got her personal best score again. That’s not three matches in a row for her doing that,” said Daniel. “I’ve seen improvement from her and all of the others that we’ve been working with.”
Northview’s night was rounded out by Amber Moreland (47), Mia Tribble (48), Maci Brimberry (48), Marley Baumgartner (50) and Mara Perkins (61) while Ashley Harrison (60), Emma Gibbs (60), Gracie Culler (62), Kailyn Tucker (64), Emily Swearingen (54), Ella James (54), Marlee Blankenship (51) and Addi Schopmeyer (64) closed out the match for Clay City.
Now, both teams turn their attention towards Friday’s sectional tournament where – no matter where the prognosticators foresee them finishing – Daniel and Hawk hope to see their teams put together their best scores of the year.
“We haven’t played many 18-hole tournaments. It’s something my girls aren’t really used to, so Wednesday’s [SWIAC tournament] should be good for them heading into sectionals,” said Daniel. “I feel like we’re going to do better than we did last year, although of course, there’s nowhere to go but up. The schools that we’re grouped with on Friday, we’ve beaten them before, so I feel like that will allow the girls to be more relaxed and not so nervous which should help them play better.”
“These girls want to make it to regionals more than anyone else, I’d say. That’s a big deal for them. We easily have the ability to do that,” said Hawk. “The goal is to steal the No. 2 spot. We would be very happy with that. And if we keep playing like we have been playing, we should be able to do that, but I still want to strive for the 177 score we got last week because I think that would definitely get us there and it would also make us really happy.”
Northview 189, Clay City 238
Northview (189) – Amber Moreland 47, Kailee James 46, Mia Tribble 48, Maci Brimberry 48, Marley Baumgartner 50, Mara Perkins 61
Clay City (238) – Libby Zurcher 56, Ashley Harrison 60, Emma Gibbs 60, Gracie Culler 62, Kailyn Tucker 64, Emily Swearingen 54, Ella James 54, Marlee Blankenship 51, Addi Schopmeyer 64