Estancia defeated Orange, 249-254, in the first round on the Panthers’ home course.
Haycraft shot seven-over-par 42 to share medalist honors with sophomore teammate Ashley Peters.
Part of the reason Haycraft described Monday’s win as justified was because she felt the Eagles should have won the championship last year. The Breakers captured the program’s first girls’ golf league title after beating Estancia by two strokes at Mesa Linda last season.
Haycraft and the Eagles watched as Laguna Beach took a step closer to repeating with a win by four strokes at San Clemente Country Club Oct. 1.
The Breakers screamed in celebration after winning, Haycraft said. This time, at Mesa Linda, she wanted to silence them.
The win helped, as did the scores of fellow Eagles’ Jackie Crosson and Nushin Tasbihchi, who both shot 48, and Nicole Irigoyen, who carded a 50.
Grace Komoroczy, the Breakers’ top golfer, shot a team-low 44 for Laguna Beach, which also had Jenni Coury (52), Austen Grossman (55), Taylor Weiss (56) and Ladan Davia (57) score.
Before Monday, the Eagles (14-3, 8-1 in league) knew it would be tough to take down Laguna Beach, also 8-1 in league. Sure they would be playing on their home course. But Monday matches are notoriously rough for the girls because they don’t practice during the weekend. This past weekend proved especially challenging because Estancia had its homecoming dance Saturday.
Art Perry, the Eagles’ coach who also was a chaperon at the dance, stressed to his girls to practice on Sunday with the league title in the balance Monday.
Both Haycraft and Peters practiced, Haycraft at Mesa Linda, Peters at Mesa Verde Country Club.
Also, some of the pressure was decreased when the Eagles learned the Breakers would be without their team captain Karina Shaw, who is usually Laguna’s No. 2 golfer.
