NORTH OLMSTED, Ohio (Oct. 4, 2022) -- Rocky River competed in DI sectional tournament play at Springvale Golf Course Tuesday. The Maroon & White placed seventh in the tournament, just missing out on advancing to next week's DI District Tournament.
Sophomore Mia Ginnetti and junior Chloe Holton paced the Pirate effort. Both shot 87s and would end up in a three-way playoff with a chance to advance in the Buckeye State playoffs with at-large berths. (Tuesday's sectional qualifier sent the top-4 teams and four at-large finishers into district play.)
River carded a four-man score of 378 on the par-70 layout. Ginnetti and Holton were joined by Julia Schmid (97) and Sophia Loparo (106) on the Pirate scoresheet. Magnificat (303) won the section title. Joining the Blue Streaks in advancing were Strongsville (339), Medina (353), and Avon (372).
Ginnetti and Holton were turned aside by Gianna Reginelli (St, Joseph) in a sudden-death playoff for the final at-large ticket to the DI Northeast Ohio District Tournament. Reginelli made par on two playoff holes. Holton was knocked out with a bogey on the first. Ginnetti parred the first and bogeyed the second.
"I am beyond proud of those two girls for how they battled and for our whole team for everything it accomplished this fall," said coach Jeff Hammond. "It has been a great season with a tremendous group of young ladies."
Rocky River's 2022 season was comprised of 21 matches. Remarkably, the Pirates went 20-1. The Double-R won the regular-season title in the Lake Erie Girls Golf Association, and the Pirates logged a runner-up finish in the LEGGA Tournament. On Monday, a resolute Buccaneer squad battled its way to within 6 strokes of one more tournament this autumn.
That autumn contains just a little more golf to be played in the Buckeye State. It contains the month of October, which will be bursting into brilliant colors in a few weeks. The first colors we saw this fall -- even if they faded a bit today -- were shades of bold Maroon. They were displayed across courses in the Rocky River valley and elsewhere the last several weeks. And they were impressive.
by Skip Snow
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