Andrew Lwowski is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Desert Vista for AZPreps365.com

SCOTTSDALE -- Desert Vista's Hailey Bolander shot a three-over-par 38 on the front nine at Talking Stick Resort to lead the Thunder to victory in their final regular season match Wednesday. Playing against Glendale Mountain Ridge and Scottsdale Chaparral, Bolander overcame both the course and a relentless flurry of gnats and flies.

"Yeah, I would say so," Bolander said when asked if the insects affected her game. "It was the same conditions for everyone, so it's not like it was just me or anything, but it was definitely distracting."

Led by Bolander and freshman Madeleine Nguyen, Desert Vista posted a composite score of 168 total strokes. Mountain Ridge and Chaparral finished second and third with 175 and 200 strokes, respectively. The win installs the Thunder as the number eight seed, for the time being, for the playoffs.

 Despite the the heavy swarm of bugs and pests, Bolander stayed the course on the course—and shot comparably to what she has been scoring all season. Nguyen, however, who made the varsity squad as a freshman, experienced her fair share of trouble.

“The bugs were a big distraction,” Nguyen said. “On hole one, I was putting and a bug went in my eye and I screamed it past the hole. I ended up three-putting.”

Nguyen shot a six-over-par 41, just behind Bolander's 38. Nguyen is the only freshman on the team’s core of four girls that travel for matches. The other three are seniors. She said she hopes to have more fun and be less hard on herself going into her sophomore year.

Stefanie McGinnis, who stepped up at the last minute to fill the role of head coach after the previous coach retired, has inherited a formidable roster that is equipped for a deep run into the playoffs. The Thunder will play two more 18-hole tournaments before final seedings. 

“It has been very rewarding, I have to admit,” says McGinnis, who hopes that Desert Vista's last two tournaments will elevate it to a six- or seven-seed. “I think everything has exceeded my expectations, not only their level of play, but also what they’re getting out of it off the course as well.”

No matter how the season pans out, McGinnis has a young core off of which to build. There were eight freshman who tried out for this season, five of whom made the team. She expects much more in next year’s freshman class.

“I hope that we just keep building momentum year after year and not have to worry about graduating seniors,” she said. “With the group of underclassmen that we have going into next season and potential incoming freshman, I think we’ll be a strong program for years to come.”