By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
They came to the golf course together as freshmen with no idea what they would build.
But over the course of time the five seniors on the West Windsor-Plainsboro High North girls golf team have transformed the program into one of the finest in the state.
The Knights qualified for the Tournament of Champions with a third-place showing at the sectional championships on Tuesday, and on Thursday they took a 23-match winning streak into their scheduled match with WW-P South.
“For me and all the seniors, we started off freshman year and didn’t win too much,” recalled senior Ashley Desai. “But as we developed as a team we started to play really well and our dedication as a team was really unfathomable. The drastic change from freshman year to sophomore year is crazy to think about. We all really just took off.
“Freshman year we were starting to get into the ropes of the game and competing. The following year we really put our mind to it and practiced so hard and all our wins have been amazing. All the seniors are sad to be graduating.”
The Knights were hoping to close out their second straight undefeated season but still had matches against WW-P South and Moorestown. They recently captured the championship of the Central Jersey Girls Golf League Tournament by nine shots over East Brunswick.
“I feel like from Day One all of us were in it together since freshman year,” Maansi Jayade added. “We’ve been close since freshman year. That is what made us so strong now. I never thought we would get this far. I just thought we were this group of really focused golfers who really love the sport and we’ll see where it takes us. It brought us to the top which is great.”
The five seniors have been together since the beginning and when a talented group of players who are now sophomores joined the ranks last year, success was inevitable.
“When we were sophomores we didn’t have the younger class that we have now,” said Kaley Bohling, who will play next year at Sacred Heart University. “We have a ton of sophomores on the team. When we were sophomores they weren’t around yet. When the Class of 2016 became juniors, we had the freshmen come in and I think right then and there we figured out we had a strong enough senior squad now and sophomore squad now that were able to do as well as we did.
“A lot of the sophomores really stepped it up this year, which is great to see. They are a key component of why we are as good as we are.”
On Tuesday, it was sophomore Jackie Cai who led the Knights when she shot a 73 to finish fourth in the Central/South sectional at Bey Lea Golf Course in Toms River. Bohling shot an 84, while Desai shot an 88 and Aruja Patel, another sophomore, shot a 90.
“We started noticing sophomore and junior year when our coach would start telling us our group was so talented,” said Ritu Vyas, who shot a 95 on Tuesday. “It is kind of crazy to see where we started out and where we are now.
“We’re ending next week so it is kind of sad. I have been thinking about all my lasts. The last time I’ll play this course or the last full week of school golf. I have gone through all the different scenarios. I am really hopeful for the younger girls and I think they will do great.”
This senior group of Knights has certainly laid the groundwork for success. And their hope is that the talented younger golfers in the program keep the momentum moving forward.
“I knew that we were going to grow from there because we always evolved,” senior Shreya Jahagirdar said of the team’s improvement since the current seniors were freshmen. “I feel like after we hit junior year and the sophomores came in it just made us want to play better. And along with Jackie Cai on our team it made us just want to play better and work towards the same goal of going to the state tournament.
“We’re doing it for Coach as well. We want him to have an excellent season. He deserves it after all of these years. We’re a close-knit group. I have known Ashley since eighth grade and I knew that she played. And when we got to ninth grade I saw my brother play and it made me want to play. We all just came together.”
And they have all established a foundation of success that they hope continues.
“They are a great bunch of kids who have forced the program to move forward over the last four years,” WW-P North coach Tom Connolly said. “They have been out practicing together and helping each other and pushing each other. It’s been great.
“They won’t all be playing in college but I’m sure they will all probably be playing together somewhere sometime.”
