Grand Haven's varsity golf showed improvement in its team score, but it wasn't enough to catch visiting Rockford on Thursday at Grand Haven Golf Club, with the Rams prevailing 203-216. Grand Haven coach Roger Glass was pleased to see Kristen Carlson shoot a 47, which was the Bucs' low round. Martha Ramsey carded a 55 for the Bucs, Hailey Watkins shot a 56, Amanda Merz and Sierra Olthoff each finished with a 58, and Kira Glass recorded a 62. SL WINS HOME TRI-MEET

Grandville's talented collection of singles players put the host Grand Haven varsity tennis team in a pretty big hole during Wednesday's O-K Red Conference meet. Grand Haven's doubles teams nearly dug the Bucs all the way out. The Bucs' No. 1 and No. 3 doubles teams scored exciting three-set victories against the Bulldogs, and their No. 2 team won in straight sets, giving Grand Haven a chance to tie the match if the No. 4 team of George Austin and Reid Murphy could win at No. 4.

MACKite will host the 11th annual King of the Great Lakes Kiteboarding Competition on Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Grand Haven beaches. Spectators will have a chance to watch the pros and local riders during the Freestyle and Course Racing events. An overall winner in the both Men's and Women's divisions will be announced Sunday at 4 p.m. Event times run Friday, 1-7 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.; and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Grand Haven's boys and girls cross country teams dominated West Ottawa in an O-K Red Conference showdown on Wednesday. The Buccaneer boys defeated the Panthers, 17-46, thanks in part to a fantastic outing by Ryan Duff. The senior led the Bucs with a personal-best time of 16 minutes, 14 seconds despite a 15 mph headwind. The Buccaneer girls won by a score of 15-50 as they took 13 of the first 14 places.

Take a look at the scorecard of any of the girls on the Grand Haven varsity golf team and you'll find an occasional 3, some random 4's, and plenty of 5's. But you'll also see a bunch of 7's, some 8's, even a few 9's and 10's. The positive holes give coach Roger Glass a glimmer of hope, but the "blow-up holes,' as Glass calls them, drive the coach crazy.

Host Zeeland, ranked No. 10 in the Division 1 state swim and dive rankings, defeated both Grand Haven and Spring Lake in a tri-meet on Tuesday. Zeeland won 11 of 12 events to help it top the Lakers, 116-68, and the Bucs, 112-72. In their head-to-head matchup, the Bucs prevailed over the Lakers, 117-69. Grand Haven first-year coach Doug Thorne said his very young squad is starting to show tremendous leaps of improvement and it showed Tuesday evening.

Spring Lake secured its seventh consecutive Lakes Eight Conference girls golf championship on Tuesday with a victory at the Tri-County jamboree. Lakers' coach George Bitner thought his league season was complete a week ago, but the Tri-County event was determined to count toward the conference standings, forcing the Lakers to win one more time. That turned out to be no problem, as Spring Lake turned in a team score of 192. Fruitport was a distant second at 229, followed by Tri-County at 235, Fremont at 245 and Ludington at 250.

Western Michigan Christian's varsity volleyball team scored a three-set victory over Freedom Christian on Monday. The Warriors won the match, 25-18, 25-14, 25-12. Ashley Ott served tough for the Warriors, finishing with 17 points and five aces. Rachel Bruinsma led the offense with 15 kills, followed by Elyse Ray with seven. To read more of this story, see today's print or E-edition of the Grand Haven Tribune.