In their second match of the season, the Blue Devils of Springside Chestnut Hill Academy hosted the Academy of Notre Dame last Thursday afternoon at Sunnybrook Golf Club.

The visiting Irish remained undefeated at 3-0 after they pulled out a 229-235 victory over the locals. SCH slipped to 0-2, having opened the campaign with a loss to Episcopal Academy.

However, Notre Dame had beaten EA by the same six-stroke margin seen at Sunnybrook last week, and had topped the Baldwin Bears much more easily. That would indicate that the Blue Devils can certainly be competitive in Inter-Ac competition going forward.

Anne Harrower and Emma Schotsch are the two seniors on the SCH squad this spring and both are varsity veterans who plan to continue playing golf in college. They will be heading out to central Pennsylvania to play next fall, Harrower at Gettysburg College, and Schotsch at Millersville University.

They are SCH team captains this spring, along with junior Tess Fairlie.

In regular scholastic competition, teams are traditionally split into foursomes that contain two players from each school, but last fall and again this spring teams have not intermingled due to COVID-19.

The six varsity players for SCH were split into two trios last Thursday, playing first and last in the order while Notre Dame went in between. There was no precipitation during the match, but the sky was overcast and some morning rain had left the course slick in spots. Harrower came around in 40 strokes, and Schotsch shot a 43 and Fairlie carded a 52 to complete the first Blue Devil threesome (a team's best five individual scores overall count towards the team score in a match).

Out of the two Notre Dame groups that were next to finish, senior Steph Bonini turned in the best round of the day, with a 39. The next-best four scores to emerge for the Irish were a 42 from senior Heather Styslinger, a 46 from junior Catherine Chapman, and 51's from both senior Sydney Worrell and sophomore Maura O'Reilly.

When Springside's other three players wrapped up their rounds, sophomores Isabella DeCesare and Evelyn Lauerman each brought in a score of 50 to complete the Blue Devils' team score. DeCesare was already a member of the SCH varsity as an eighth grader, and she now has as a teammate her sister Ava, who is a freshman this year.

One of the reasons that veteran coach Nick Smith thinks his team can turn things around in the Inter-Ac is because the scores produced by his athletes don't vary widely from match to match; they're a consistent group of golfers.