They are playing hard, working to improve, but still haven’t quite found that extra push needed to get a win.

The Escalon varsity golf girls were in action for one league match this past week, taking on Livingston.

“We lost by 10 strokes,” said first year head coach Chris Casazza.

The final was Livingston 227, Escalon 237. Figuring in to the scoring for Escalon were Genevieve Casazza and Rose Percey, each carding a 54; Elizabeth Allan at 60 and Cortney Ball at 69. Non-scoring players were the Bruns sisters, Taylor with a 69 and Samantha with a 72.

“It was another close match. Losing by ten or less is a close match in my book. That’s a difference of just two or three strokes per golfer,” noted Casazza. “Most of our losses have been by ten strokes or less, which is encouraging to me because it means we are within striking distance almost every match.”

The coach went on to add that Rancho Del Ray in Atwater, where they faced off with Livingston, was “definitely a challenging course” for the girls.

“The first hole is a long par five that has a green that’s nearly surrounded by water. It is definitely an intimidating way to start a round,” Casazza said. “Considering the difficulty of the course, and the fact that none of our girls had played that course before, I was proud of how close the final outcome was.”

The team was slated to play at the 18-hole TVL Mid-Year Tournament on Monday, Sept. 25 in Manteca and then start the second half of the TVL with head-to-head matches, going against the other league teams one more time.

“Our first second half match is against Riverbank at home on Thursday,” Casazza said of hosting the Lady Bruins on Sept. 28. “With so many close matches in the first half, I’m excited by our chances of picking up some league wins in the second half.”

On Thursday this past week, the girls were able to work with PGA professional Lance Johnson at their practice.

“He did some group instruction on basic swing mechanics and also spent some one-on-one time with each of our girls,” Casazza explained of the Sept. 21 practice. “He was able to give some instruction to each golfer based on her skill level and swing. He also covered the mental aspect of golf, which is a huge part of the game. All in all, it was very successful and time well spent.”