The Palo Alto High School girls’ golf team (1-1) narrowly lost to crosstown rival Gunn High School in its second league match by a score of 192-195 yesterday at the Palo Alto Municipal Golf Course.

Senior team captain Michelle Xie finished the round with a score of 32, while sophomore Emily Hwang, freshman Stephanie Yu, sophomore Celia Willner and sophomore Candace Wang came in with scores of 36, 39, 43, and 45 respectively.

According to Xie, the team performed well and was unlucky not to win.

“One of the players on the Gunn team shot the lowest round of their life,” Xie said. “So that took us down a little bit.  All the Gunn girls players played really well.”

One of the bright spots in the loss was the performance of sophomore Candace Wang, who had to step in for a sick sophomore Elise Kiya.

“At the time, we didn’t know how well the other girl was playing at Gunn,” coach Doyle Knight said. “But her score at the time could’ve helped us win.  We didn’t because the other girl played better, but Candace’s score, in her first true match, was big,”

Wang, described by Knight as an up-and-comer, spoke about her effort at the match.

“Yesterday was really one of the days where I tried hard to keep up with my group,” Wang said.  “Each shot is independent from the next, so you try to do your best on every single shot.”

Despite the loss, Knight expects more strong performances from the rest of the team.

“Michelle’s not going to be here next time we play Gunn,” Knight said. “So I was really challenging the girls to step up, and I think they can.”

The Vikings will take on Saratoga in their next home game at 3:30 p.m. on Thursday at Santa Teresa Golf Club.