PENDLETON — The top player may be gone, but hopes of a strong season are still there.

The Pendleton Heights girls golf team, led by Danielle Tinsley, advanced to the Lapel Regional in 2019. Tinsley is now a freshman on the women’s golf team at Huntington University, but the rest of last season’s Arabians team is back and ready to see what 2020 has in store.

“I think my five returning (players) are very solid,” coach Hilary Slick said.

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Tinsley was an all-Hoosier Heritage Conference performer in 2019 and had a team-low round of 86 in the New Palestine Sectional.

Senior Ryann Norris is still the only member from the Class of 2021. She is back along with juniors Grace Wiggins and Kaylee McKenney and sophomore Ashley McKenney (Kaylee’s sister) and Kaitlynn Shamblin.

Slick said she believes any one of the trio of Norris, Wiggins and Kaylee McKenney could find time in the vacated No. 1 spot.

Wiggins had the team’s low round in last year’s regional, carding an 85.

“She’s been the most accurate,” Slick said of Wiggins.

The team began official practice Friday, July 31, though Slick has been apprised of how players have played over the summer.

In nine-hole rounds, Slick said the veteran trio have been recording high 30s and low 40s, while Ashley McKenney has been in the middle 40s and low 50s.

“They are all right there together with their scores,” Slick said.

Along with the five back from a year ago, Slick said at least 10 newcomers, including nine freshmen, have shown interest in being part of the team.

“I plan on keeping all of them for practice and to be ready for next year,” Slick said of the newcomers.

The postseason route will be different and tougher in 2020. Instead of playing in the New Palestine Sectional, from which the Arabians have advanced out twice in the past four years, they will go to the Noblesville Sectional, played at Harbour Trees Golf Club.

The competition is expected to be much stronger with the likes of Noblesville, a seventh-place finisher in the 2019 Indiana High School Athletic Association Girls Golf State Finals, and Lapel, a first-time state qualifier in 2019 and 13th-place finisher. The top three teams, and the top three individuals not on the top three teams, advance from sectional to regional play.

The season was scheduled to start Tuesday, Aug. 4, against Hoosier Heritage Conference foe Mt. Vernon at Greenfield’s Arrowhead Golf Course, the home course of the Marauders.

The first home match is scheduled for Monday, Aug. 10, against Madison-Grant. Home matches will be played at Fall Creek Golf Course in Pendleton.