3A STATE GOLF: Baeza’s consistent play leads Bulldogs to title
In golf, one bad hole or a below-average day can mean the difference between first place and finishing outside the top 10.
Lucky for Virgin Valley senior Felisha Baeza, she’s consistent.
Baeza fired an 85 on both days of the Class 3A girls golf tournament to finish at 170 and take individual honors Thursday at Boulder Creek Golf Club. The Bulldogs carded 791 as a team for a first-place finish over runner-up Spring Creek’s 862.
“I just like to stay focus when it comes to tournament-time,” Baeza said. “I don’t worry about what everybody else says or thinks, or who’s there. I just like to focus on my game and be consistent.”
Baeza’s strong rounds allowed the Bulldogs to run away with the team title.
“They played great all year,” Virgin Valley coach Bubba Smith. “We expected to play better this week, but we’re fairly young and I think the pressure got to some of them. But we were able to do enough to win. I challenged them to play inside themselves and keep their cool. And to play safe, after taking a 30-stroke lead after the first day.
“But our main goal was to win the state championship. And for Felisha to win the individual championship was everything for us.”
Baeza added: “I’ve been working on this for four years.”
Baeza added: “I’ve been working on this for four years.”
Boulder City’s Indiana Mead and Truckee’s Annika Nousiainen finished tied for second at the end of the tournament, with Mead claiming the runner-up spot by virtue of a card tiebreaker, when she shot a 48 to Nousiainen’s 49 on the back nine at Boulder Creek.
Kayley Shupe improved seven strokes from day one to two and finished with a fourth-place 193. Shupe started the round in seventh.
“After yesterday, I knew that I had to fight back,” Shupe said. “I knew that I wasn’t done yet. My coach gave me a great speech last night, and I decided to come here today, see what I could do; I went all out, had a few nice holes and got my momentum going.”
Hannah Bulloch of Virgin Valley, who edged Baeza in a playoff at the Southern League tournament, rounded out the top five with a 198 for the tourney.
“Hannah got a little bit nervous today and didn’t play quite as well as she could,” Smith said. “But she is the heart of our team. She’s a character; she keeps it light and everybody happy, smiling. She keeps it very real for the rest of us. Without Hannah, it would’ve been hard to do what we did as a team this year.”
