All season long, the players on the Reeths-Puffer girls golf team dreamed about qualifying for the state finals.
They came close last year with the same basic lineup, finishing fifth at regionals, only three shots out of third place, which is the cutoff for teams to qualify.
The Rockets figured they were good enough, if they had a good day, to at least leapfrog to third and finally punch their ticket to the finals.
As it turned out, they accomplished that goal, and a whole lot more.
The R-P girls beat the entire field of 15 teams and won a Division 2 regional tournament at Lincoln Golf Club on Tuesday.
Regional champs, from left, assistant coach Kevin Howard, Abby Davis, Kayleigh Brown, Sophia McCollum, Olivia Ambler, Ella Voorhies, head coach Matt Pallett.
They finished with a team score of 368, well ahead of second-place Grand Rapids South Christian (376) and Grand Rapids Christian (377).
It was the third regional championship in the history of the R-P girls golf program. The previous two came in 2017 and 2018.
The regional championship was a crowning achievement for the three R-P seniors - Sophia McCollum, Olivia Ambler and Ella Voorhies - who came up through the program together, improved every year, and finally brought home the biggest team title of their careers.
Tuesday’s championship continued a hot streak for the Rockets, which included winning the Greater Muskegon Athletic Association tournament and their own Rocket Invitational tournament in recent weeks.
“I am very proud of my seniors," said R-P head coach Matt Pallett, who is in his fifth year of running the program. “They have worked hard since they were freshmen, and to go out on a very difficult day, achieve what they did, I am just very proud., Regionals are a one-day event, and if you have a bad day your season is done.
“I’m sure nerves were part of it at times for them. It’s not easy. They are high school girls doing the best they can. But they were able to overcome those nerves to finish strong and lead us to victory.”
Senior Sophia McCollum
McCollum, R-P’s defending Division 2 individual state champion, led the Rockets by shooting a 78 and finishing in second place in the individual standings.
Voorhies, who has been playing very well lately, shot a 92 and finished ninth. Senior Olivia Ambler shot a 94 and took 12th, and junior Kayleigh Brown shot a 103 and finished 35th.
Freshman Abby Davis also competed for the Rockets and shot a 110.
The Rockets achieved a major goal just by finishing in the top three and qualifying for the state finals, and that would have been good enough for them.
“We’ve had some heartbreaks at regionals,” Pallett said. “In my second year we missed qualifying by one shot. In my third year it was by five, and last year it was by three.
“That’s what we talked about this year, taking the next step. We had some big goals this year, winning the city tournament, which we did, finishing near the top of the conference, which we did, and then to qualify for state.”
Senior Ella Voorhies
While the focus was not on winning the regional championship, Pallett said he did not discount that possibility.
“I felt like, if we played really well today, we would have a chance to win.” he said. “The girls did not want to put a lot of pressure on themselves, so they said it would be good enough to qualify for state.
“I don’t think we played our best today, but we shot really well down the stretch, which enabled us to win.”
The competition was close near the end, but the Rockets nailed down the title by playing great on the final few holes of the tournament.
“The way it was set up, we had to play some of the harder holes toward the end of the day,” Pallett said. “McCollum birdied her last two holes, Ambler had a great par on her last hole, Voorhies had a nice stretch of holes toward the end, and Brown shot well the last three holes and finished three over par, which was really good for her."
Pallett knew that Brown’s finish would be crucial to nailing down the title, so he had assistant coach Kevin Brown follow her and guide her toward the end of the tournament.
Senior Olivia Ambler
That was clearly helpful for Brown, a first-year varsity golfer who joined the team after the season got started.
“Usually we bounce around from player to player, but I had Coach Howard go with her, and she did really well on some difficult holes,” Pallett said.
Now it’s on to the state finals, which will be a two-day, 36-hole tournament on Oct. 16-17 at Forest Akers West on the campus of Michigan State University.
McCollum will be gunning for her second straight individual state title, and now her team will also be in the mix for a team championship.
“There are six different regionals, and 18 teams that qualified,” Pallett said. “In some regards I feel like we’ve been overlooked a bit this year. I think a reasonable goal would be to finish in the top five in the state. That would be a great finish.”
