As the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School golf team realized they made it to regionals, the team jumped with joy as Cynthia Liu carried her team to victory. A junior at MSD, Liu is a dedicated golfer and student who dominated the Oct. 21 district competition at Southwinds Golf Course in Boca Raton, Florida.

Throughout the fall season, the MSD golf team attended a variety of matches against other high schools in South Florida, practicing weekly to prepare for each competition. After making themselves known as one of the best teams in the area, the Eagles were able to advance and win in their district competition, a feat that earned them a spot in the state championship.

In the regional competition, which earned them a place in states, MSD played against other high schools in the area, such as St. Thomas Aquinas High School, Cypress Bay High School, Western High School, Coral Gables High School and Doral High School. The MSD team placed third at regionals at the Southwinds Golf Course.

“I felt pretty good about [the regional] tournament. I played a practice round the weekend before districts and got decently familiar with the course,” Liu said. “I went into the tournament quite confident that we had a good chance of making it to states as a team.”

As a team, MSD received a score of 326. Individually, Liu shot 73 through 18 holes. St. Thomas Aquinas High School placed first in the competition with a score of 307 and Doral High School placed second with a score of 324.

“The team really improved overall at regionals. We scored over 10 strokes better at regionals than districts. Cynthia improved by three strokes and played consistently well throughout her round,” coach Devin Schaller said.

Although Liu did not win, she had a commendable round of 76. Overall, the team placed second as a team at districts and third at regionals.

“My biggest accomplishment in this tournament was being able to recover from previous mistakes. During this round, I didn’t even make a single birdie, even though I had a pretty good chance for them before that,” Liu said. “With that being said, I think I definitely could have done better on the putting green.”

The golf team has proven their skills by placing at both the district and regional level. Liu scored a large amount of the points for the MSD golf team throughout competitions.

“Overall, I had a really great time playing this tournament. For this round, and also for districts, I was able to play with the people I knew and were friends with from tournaments outside high school golf,” Liu said. “Since we all knew each other and we’re comfortable around each other, I was pretty calm throughout the round.”

As part of Liu’s contributions, the team shared a win as well as an enjoyable experience at the golf course.