EAST LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) – The Okemos girls golf team won the CAAC Open by 11 strokes on Monday and junior Alena Li won the individual crown after shooting a 68.

Li, a returning all-state player, makes the game look easy sometimes. But her head coach Dan Stolz will be the first to tell you about all the hard work Li puts in to working on her game.

“She’s more a leader by example and her example is that you’re here early, you stay late, you hit balls, you focus on what it is you’re doing,” said Stolz.

While Li leads the way for the Wolves, she’s joined in the team’s top six by four seniors. Much like Li, those seniors are a testament to the value of hard work as well.

“In golf, many times you have a high-level kid that can step right in and help [as a freshman], and those girls weren’t quite ready to be varsity players [back then],” Stolz said of the seniors. “But they have worked and worked and gotten better and better over the years and now they’re really doing a nice job for us and have really stepped up, so that’s been fun.”

Stolz said he hopes the win at the CAAC Open is a reminder to his team of how good they can be.

The Wolves have goals to win the conference championship and to qualify for the state tournament for the seventh straight year.

“I think it is a confidence boost to how good we can be when we’re good and when we put in our time and when we prepare correctly,” he said.

The stakes will get higher as the postseason approaches, but the Wolves will rely on their hard work and experience to stay calm.

“I think it helps that when you’ve played a lot of tournaments, there’s some situations that if you’ve played in it before or just, mentally, you can think through it and take time on every shot,” Li said.