After three-putting three times on Monday, Brownstown’s Gracie Reynolds was able to par three-straight holes to shoot her best score on the Hickory Hills Golf Course.

Reynolds shot a 46, which was third best on the evening behind New Albany’s Kaidyn Wardlaw (40) and Abby Reavis (42).

New Albany won the match with a team score of 181 while Brownstown shot a 215. But it was a step in the right direction for Reynolds and the Braves’ team.

“She was hitting the ball well,” head coach Brandon Allman said of Reynolds. “She had three 3-putts, and I think they were all three in a row. She was able to recover from that and was able to par three holes. She’s getting better and better every day.”

Emma Hughbanks was the next best for Brownstown with a 54. In the match prior, Hughbanks shot a 58, so even though her score Monday isn’t where she wants to be, she was happy she improved from the last time out.

“I’ve done better,” she said. “My last week I’ve been struggling. I feel like I started getting too upset after a bad shot, so I’m trying to get back to having fun and moving on to the next shot.”

Hughbanks was wearing egg earrings and socks with golf clubs on them, which is a tradition for her each match.

“I like my fun earrings, and I always wear my lucky golf socks,” Hughbanks said.

Her favorite club is her pitching wedge, but she said, “It’s been going a bit left, which is making me upset.”

Hughbanks was pleased with her putting and driving on Monday, but it was her irons that let her down.

“I’ll be struggling with one thing, then I’ll fix that, and then it’ll be another thing,” she said. “Today my putting has been fine and my drives have been good, but now my irons are messed up. It’s just something new every time.”

The Brownstown senior hopes to get back under 50 this season, and with a positive mindset she’s confident she can get back there.

“Emma shot better today,” Allman said. “We really need her to get back down to where she’s capable of. She’s broke 50 a couple times and broke 100 for the first time down at Madison, so we definitely need her to come back. She’s been in a little bit of a slump, so hopefully this has given her some confidence.”

Behind Reynolds and Hughbanks was Megan VonDielingen, who shot a 55.

“This is one of her better scores of the year,” Allman said of VonDielingen. “She can hit the well ball enough, just have to get better around the greens.”

Rounding out the Braves’ scores on Monday were Abby Schroer with a 60 and Jayda Clodfelder with a 68.

The Braves will be at Paoli today and at Mitchell on Thursday to close out this week. Next week, Brownstown will have one match with Bedford North Lawrence before hosting the Mid-Southern Conference meet at Shadowood Golf Course on Sept. 10.

“I think our girls are improving,” Allman said. “They are really putting in hard work. We just got to keep getting better around the greens, I can’t say that enough. Their scores can drop five or six strokes if we can get better in that area.”