University Makes Some Noise With Title

GOLETA — There was good news for the University girls’ golf team Monday and there will be a whole lot of bad news over the next few years for the rest of the teams in the Southern Section.

The Trojans shot a team score of 256 at Sandpiper Golf Course and won the first section team championship in girls’ golf, defeating second-place Rosary by eight strokes and third-place North Hollywood Harvard-Westlake by 10.

But the best news for the Trojans is that their top three players are freshman Angela Won and sophomores Sunny Lee and Michelle Barth.

“We hope this is the first of many,” Coach Patti Anduri said. “Nobody knew what to expect at the beginning. I knew we had three strong players, but I didn’t know what everyone else had.”

Won shot 79, one of only four scores in the 70s Monday. Lee shot 88 and Barth had 89. Ina Kim of Harvard-Westlake was medalist with a two-over-par 76.

This is the first year the Southern Section has sanctioned girls’ golf. Previously, girls played on the boys’ teams. Few were competitive against boys, because they played from championship tees.

Winning the first girls’ tournament meant a great deal to University’s players.

“We wanted it real bad,” Lee said.

The Trojans, who compiled an 18-0 regular-season record, won the Pacific Coast League title and tied Santa Margarita and Rosary for the Central Regional title, did so quietly.

“Nobody paid attention to us and that was fine because we didn’t want any press,” Barth said. “We just kept ourselves quiet.”

Monday’s victory should change that.

“The word is going to be out about us now,” Anduri said. “We can’t keep it a secret anymore.”

So how will the young Trojans deal with their newfound fame? “We’ll get used to it,” Lee said.

Maggie Barnett led Rosary with an 81. Marina, led by Courtney Goebel’s 79, was fifth in the 10-team field at 269. Shayna Shaw and Heather McDermott each shot 90 for Mater Dei, which shot 278 to finish seventh. Foothill (292) finished ninth and Santa Margarita (294) was 10th.