Carrying a 20-0 record into Saturday's Warsaw Sectional at Stonehenge Golf Club, the Wawasee Lady Warriors look primed for a victory.
"We have the type of team that really does whatever it takes and they play extremely well," Wawasee coach Scott DeHart said.The Lady Warriors wrapped up the Northern Lakes Conference title last week at Stonehenge, winning the conference tournament with a four-person score of 346 on the par-71 course.
"The girls are very focused on what they are doing," DeHart said. "They're just going out there and playing. It's been exciting to watch."
During the 2010 season, Wawasee set a new 18-hole school record twice and 9-hole school record three times.
Helping with that surge has been foreign exchange student Sathita Cheeranont of Thailand, who won last week's NLC tournament with a 77 on a wet course.
"She's a golfer," DeHart said. "She's adapated well. A golf course is a golf course"
Accompanying Cheeranont has been Krista Zurcher, Alexis Linnemeier, Cortney Rassi and Cayla Hilgenberg.
While the Lady Warriors look to be the favorites to win the tournament, DeHart says winning the school's first sectional since 2007 isn't really his goal.
"Our goal as a team is just to get to the next level," he said.
Getting out may be the goal, but winning the school's fourth sectional crown would also be nice.
The top three teams from Stonehenge join the top three teams from three other sectionals in next week's East Noble Regional.
"Just like in any tournament, when we go, we want to win," DeHart said.
Standing in the way of winning that tournament, DeHart sees Warsaw, Culver Girls Academy and Plymouth as potential threats.
"There are four to five teams that can battle," DeHart said. "We can't look past any of them."
One of those teams is the two-time defending champion Warsaw Lady Tigers, who have the advantage of playing on their home course.
"It's a big advantage," Warsaw coach Chris LaLonde said about playing the sectional at Stonehenge. "The girls really know how the course plays."
Featuring a young team with two freshmen in Nikki LaLonde and Nikki Grose, as well as sophomore Morgan Sands, coach LaLonde is relying heavily on junior Sarah Hartle and senior Kayla Hutcherson.
"If they play well, we can stick around," Chris LaLonde said.
Like DeHart, Chris LaLonde is also just looking to advance to the East Noble Regional with a top three finish, but winning a seventh sectional wouldn't be bad either.
"I always think we can do it," the Warsaw coach said. "I always tell them we can do it. I never stop being positive."
Also like DeHart, LaLonde too sees CGA and Plymouth as others contending to advance, but also adds Columbia City to that mix.
"They're all going to be right there," LaLonde said.
Wawasee, Warsaw and Plymouth will tee off in the same group at 9:30 a.m., while CGA, Columbia City and Triton tee off at 10:10 a.m., with the last group of Rochester, Whitko and Tippecanoe Valley teeing off at 10:50 a.m.
