Springs Valley Community High School

The Springs Valley girls’ golf team hosted its first home event of the season on Thursday, hosting Jasper, Forest Park and Southridge at the Valley Links. The Blackhawks were far from a finished product in just their third outing of the season, but still managed to pick up a couple of wins. Among the four teams, they finished second with a team score of 203. Jasper finished first at 163 while Forest Park beat Southridge on a tiebreaker, both teams finishing with scores of 208. Springs Valley knows that there’s room for improvement, but isn’t dissatisfied with the result. “It’s always good to play at home. You don’t have to drive, you don’t have to travel, but we still have some work to do. We know we can do better,” Springs Valley coach Eric Elkins said. “It felt nice to beat Forest Park and Southridge tonight. We felt like we should’ve won that first match at Forest Park the other night, so it’s good to come back and show them that we could beat them.” Mia Cruz led the way for the Blackhawks once again on Thursday. Valley’s ace had an up-and-down night, but still managed to card a 45 thanks in part to a birdie on the fourth hole. The Blackhawks number-two, Macy Hall, struggled with her swing a bit and finished at 54. One of the big positives of the night for Springs Valley was the play of the middle of its lineup. Dallas Hendrix worked her way to a 51 while Karmen Hall finished with a score of 53. “Real proud of Karmen. I challenged her to get to 55 and she shot a 53 so I’m really proud of her,” Elkins said. “Dallas did alright too at a 51. I know she can do better, but that’s alright.” The quality of competition the Blackhawks played on Thursday was nothing new, nor will it be the last time they take on opponents from much larger schools. That’s life for the ‘Hawks in an unclassified sport and the match will help them get ready for the state tournament. “It doesn’t matter who they are, we have to play them all,” Elkins said. “Second to Jasper doesn’t make us feel too bad because we know that Jasper’s got a lot of good golfers. We just have some work to do and we’re going to do it.” Springs Valley will return to the course on Monday, traveling to Jasper to take on the Wildcats as well as Heritage Hills and Forest Park at Buffalo Trace Golf Course. As they do so, they’ll continue focusing the same thing they’ve been focusing on to this point in the season. “It’s the same thing that we’ve been working on from the beginning — chipping and putting. A couple of the girls had a decent number of putts, but we’ve got to make sure that those putts are for par, not for a bogey or a double bogey,” Elkins said. “We have to make sure that we’re getting those chips in closer. Their approach shots are working out, so we’ve mainly got to work on chipping and putting.”