Freshman Miller shoots PR to earn regional berth

By TJ MAXWELL
Cove Leader-Press

KILLEEN - Copperas Cove freshmen Madelyn Miller has seen her shared of clutch golf growing up as the sister of Southwestern University’s Mikayla Miller and watching MCC’s Tyler Morrison and young phenom Elle Fox burn up the links but on Thursday afternoon, she showed she’s been paying attention.
“She did a great mentally today,” said head golf coach Ryan Youngblood. “She knew she had to come out and shoot her best and she did. She had a personal best 83. I’m proud of her. For a freshman, that’s a heck of an accomplishment.
“It is difficult when you know what’s at stake. Regionals will be another test for her and she’ll need to be mentally prepared for that. Golf is a mental game.”
The freshmen shaved 11 strokes off of her day one total of 94 to shoot a personal best 83 on the pressure-packed day two of the District 8-6A Golf Tournament to finish seventh overall with a 177 and earn a spot in the Region I-6A tournament to be held at the Rolling Hills Golf Club in Arlington April 24-25.
“I just peaked at the right moment and got my head in the game,” said Miller. “I had the thought of qualifying for regionals in the back of my head but it wasn’t my ultimate goal. I wanted to be all-district because that’s pretty cool to say as a freshman but now to be able to go to regionals and have that experience is pretty exciting.”
Miller led her squad to a fourth-place spot after day one with a round of 94 followed by senior Hannah Stock (100), junior Carly Nelson (104) and freshman Abigail Baker (104) for a first round total of 402. 
Miller was proud of her best outing and attributes her huge day two improvement to her green play.
“It was my personal best by six strokes,” she said. “Most of the improvement came the green. I only had two three-putts so that is a great improvement for me.”
Like Miller, Nelson had a much better day two with her round of 91, 13 strokes less than her day one total for a combined 195. Baker shot a 102 on day two for a combined total of 206 while Stock finished with a 108 on day two for a 208 total. 
Also competing for the Lady Dawgs was Andrea Vandergrift who shot a combined 236.
Youngblood is proud of how is young team competed with just one senior on the squad and is excited about the future of Lady Dawgs’ golf with all the players coming back and Fox joining the team next year.
“We’ve got a young lady coming from the junior high but we have lot of young talent on this team,” he said. “We are only graduating one senior.”
Miller agreed.
“I see huge advancements for Copperas Cove,” se said. We’ve had some really good golfers in the past but now we’re pulling a team together and it’s awesome to have so many people committed to going out and trying.
“Elle has been a huge encouragement for the younger girls while Tyler and Mikayla kind of started it all and that’s awesome, too.”
For Miller, the experienced she gained at district and the experience she will gain in Arlington in two weeks is invaluable.
“It will be fun to see the other people and how far advanced they are,” she said. “I think playing with people better than me makes me a lot better so I’m just excited to see what’s out there.”