Birdies Look to Playoffs After Another Undefeated Season

The Birdies, Stuyvesant’s varsity girls’ golf team, continued their undefeated streak after beating the Brooklyn Technical Engineers 5-0 on October 20. All five of the team’s starters shot well, outscoring the Engineers by 12 holes overall, with three of the team’s match victories coming at a margin of three holes or more.

The Birdies’ strong play landed them at the top of their division with an 8-0 record, three games ahead of James Madison High School. For the past four years, the team has succeeded in the Brooklyn A Division.

Last year, the Birdies performed similarly in the regular season, maintaining an undefeated season, but they failed to capitalize in the playoffs, losing to Staten Island Technical High School (2-3) in the second round. “We knew we definitely could have advanced to semifinals last year, so we were pretty disappointed,” sophomore Charlotte Yee said.

Though the playoff bracket is not completely set, the Birdies will likely have a bye in the first round of the playoffs, but they might face a familiar opponent in the second round.

In addition to the team playoffs, the top players in the PSAL are selected to compete in the individual competition. Last year, Stuyvesant sent four golfers to the individual championships, but they didn’t manage to chart on the top spots.

This year, senior Lucy Liu is the only one on the team attending the much smaller individual competition, and she will look to learn from her experience last year. However, winning in the individual competition will be tough due to strong competition from Hunter High School golfers.

The team has enjoyed this success because of coach Emilio Nieves. Golf is not as popular for students coming into Stuyvesant, so many of the players of the Birdies had to be taught the basics. “He really tried to diagnose what is wrong with my swing and helped me improve a lot,” Park said.