ON COURSE: Members of the Princeton High girls’ golf team enjoy the moment after they placed first at the Colonial Valley Conference (CVC) Championship last Wednesday at the Mountain View Golf Club in Ewing. The Tigers had a winning score of 339, 38 stokes better than runner-up WW/P-South. PHS senior star Jacqueline Zang placed first individually with a three-over 75, three strokes better than second place finisher Charlotte Reid of Allentown. The Tigers went to win the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA) South Jersey – Group A Sectional Championship last Monday at McCullough’s Emerald Golf Links in Egg Harbor Township. The Tigers had a winning team score of 314 with Clearview taking second at 345. Pictured, from left, are PHS head coach Jess Monzo, Shreya Gaekwad, Yasna Shahriarian, Jacqueline Zang, Alice Ye, and Kyuyoung Chung.

By Justin Feil

Jacqueline Zang was the top finisher at the Colonial Valley Conference (CVC) Girls Golf Tournament last Wednesday at Mountain View Golf Club in Ewing.

But that wasn’t her biggest joy of the day.

Zang relished winning another team title. The Princeton High senior led the Tigers to the CVC tournament title, the reincarnated version of the Mercer County Tournament that they’d won the last two years before the event was changed to exclude non-conference prep schools.

“It’s just way more fun having a group of people out there that you know are rooting for you and there to support you and the girls are great and we’re all super close,” said Zang. “So practicing together and competing together, it’s just been so much fun.”

Zang has enjoyed plenty of individual success. Earlier in the season, she also took top honors in the Lady Bombers Tee-Off Classic and the Red Devil Invitational. There have often been individual triumphs in the offseason as well, but it’s the spring that she really looks forward to because of the team aspect.

“In the summer, it’s usually individual,” said Zang. “You’re kind of out there alone, doing your own thing. But with the girls, you’re out there helping each other, and then celebrating with each other if you do well. And so it’s just a great pillar of support and just a great way to connect with each other.”

The PHS girls celebrated plenty over six days. They walloped the competition in the CVC Tournament. They outdistanced runner-up WW/P-South by 38 strokes.

“Overall I was pleased with each individual performance,” said PHS coach Jess Monzo. “I know when I talked with them after the round, some of them were a little upset at themselves, but at the end of the day, they knew as long as they played well that we would take the title home again. It’s kind of a really cool thing that the boys did it the next day too.”

After the PHS boys’ team captured their CVC title last Thursday, there was more celebration for the Tiger girls as they captured the South Jersey Group A sectional championship at Emerald Golf Links in Egg Harbor Township on Monday. They left no doubt again, posting a score of 314 to defeat second-place Clearview by 41 strokes. This time, it was junior Kyuyoung Chung who carded the low score for the Tigers at 3-over 74 with Zang third after shooting a 75. Alice Ye, who has emerged from being their sixth player last year to a consistent No. 3 this spring, was fifth with an 81. Yasna Shahriarian shot a personal-record 84 for eighth place and Shreya Gaekwad, the other senior in the PHS lineup, took ninth with 85 as they lived up to all their hopes going into it after graduating just one player from their top five last year.

“We’re in a good spot to win our first sectional title,” said Monzo after the CVC win. “The girls knew what they needed to do. It’s a tougher course, so they’re not expecting anything crazy. They’re just going to play their game. They’re going to shoot how they shoot. I think some of them looked at the course online and some of the holes are pretty wild.”

The CVC tournament win contributed to their confidence. Zang shot 3-over 75 to win by three strokes. Chung shot 13-over 85 for fifth place. Ye was a stroke behind at 86 and Gaekwad’s 93 was the final four-player score to count. Each of the Tigers had their ups and downs, but they all ended up contributing to a convincing team win that was largely expected.

“Golf’s a funny game though,” said Monzo. “It’s not always the expected number one or the higher ranked team that’s going to go out and always win. But they have the capability of doing that, so just telling them to relax and treat every stroke the same way, don’t focus on any negative shots because golf has a very big mental aspect — the mental part of golf where one bad shot will lead to several bad shots. So you have to always tell them once you hit it, you can’t worry about that one anymore.”

Zang has honed her approach to the game while growing up in the shadow of her sister, Madeleine, who is completing her sophomore year at Penn. They played two years together at Princeton, the first with the co-ed team before the school created a girls program when Zang was a sophomore and her sister was a senior.

“She’s been so helpful,” said Zang. “Really she’s like my biggest supporter and my biggest helper. Especially for college golf, she kind of gave me an insight on what it’s like and it helped me decide what I wanted to have in my college golf experience based on what she was experiencing. So it’s just she’s been so helpful with everything.”

Zang will continue her career at Carnegie Mellon University. It’s another opportunity to play on a team and her experiences at Princeton have helped shape her joy for the game. She’s enjoyed plenty of winning and is hopeful she can bring that same success at the next level.

“I’m super, super excited,” said Zang. “One, to meet all the girls on my team, and two, especially to compete for a national title. That was something I really wanted in my college golf experience and I knew Carnegie Mellon would have a chance at that pretty much the entire time I’ll be there. So I’m super looking forward to seeing how we’ll do in the NCAAs.”

Zang’s presence has been a boost to the Tigers. They’ve experienced success year after year. They were unbeaten in matches last year, and are unbeaten in tournaments thus far this year, with their only loss all season coming in a regular-season match against a talented Lawrenceville School squad.

“She’s a fire plug,” said Monzo. “She likes to have fun. She likes to enjoy it, but she does know when she needs to buckle down. She knows how to kind of flip the switch a little bit and lock in. She was like, ‘I really locked in on the back nine,’ but she’s funny like that. She jokes around. She has a good time. The girls, they’re really close. They have a really good rapport with each other. And she knows when she needs to step up, and she knows when she needs to lead by example at practice and throughout the day. She’s someone that girls know they can lean on.”

Zang is never satisfied with herself. She continues to push to develop her game. While her CVC tournament win was fairly decisive, she was as upset with a quadruple bogey in the round as she was excited about the six birdies she fired. Of particular focus is her short game as she works to score even better.

“That will definitely help with a few strokes on the course,” said Zang. “Currently I’m doing a bit of strength training to increase my distance, which will also help, but I think the game changer in college will just be the mental side of golf and making sure I’m committed to all my shots because then I know I can play my best golf as long as I’m focused and as long as I trust myself on the course.”

There is still another tournament to play with the Tigers. They will head to the girls state championships on May 13 at Raritan Valley Country Club, where Zang shot a 75 last year to finish 13th. PHS was sixth as a team last spring.

“I just want to do better than I did last year and really feel like I put together a good round of golf,” said Zang. “In states I feel like I haven’t yet done as well as I should on that course, so I’m hoping this year it’ll be much better.”

It’s the sort of ending that Zang hopes to have for herself, but also as one lasting memory of her final tournament with the PHS girls’ golf team.