MONTEREY >> There was no message involved or statements issued, no individual objectives. It’s just one step toward a series of goals Stevenson School’s girls’ golf team has laid out.

A performance for the ages? Depends on who you ask. To a player, the Pirates felt their games weren’t perfect during Tuesday’s Pacific Coast Athletic League Gabilan Division finals.

“I felt like the cup was so small,” said Nikki Iniakov, who finished as the No. 1 golfer in the Gabilan Division for the season. “I couldn’t handle my speed control with my putts. Usually that’s the best part of my game.”

While putting was a topic of concern among her teammates, the Pirates still shot 75 strokes better than runner-up Carmel to capture their seventh straight league title and 10th in the last 11 years at Laguna Seca Golf Course.

“All the girls have put in so much work,” said Iniakov, who for the first time in four years, didn’t finish as the medalist. “Like I have mentioned before, I don’t want to go to the state finals alone.”

Iniakov, who will make a decision on her college future in December, has been to the state championships three straight years as an individual.

The goal all season is going together as a team, as three straight trips to the Northern California finals have seen the Pirates come up a few strokes short.

While the entire team from last season has returned, there will be some difficult decisions for head coach Jason McArthur to make as two freshmen were among the top three finishers at the PCAL finals.

“We’ll have some conversations in the coming days,” McArthur said. “Those that don’t compete will still come as alternates. All eight kids have contributed to this season. One kid is having her best season in four years.”

The Pirates team score of 383 would have won last year’s Central Coast Section finals — which will be held in two weeks at Laguna Seca — by two strokes.

Having finished second last year to reigning three-time section champion Valley Christian of San Jose with a team score of 393, Stevenson has not won a section title since 2004.

Iniakov, who won the PURE Insurance Junior Championships four weeks ago, shot 5-over 77 on a breezy afternoon to finish in a tie for fourth, behind three of her teammates.

“I’ve neglected my putting a bit,” Iniakov said. “I’ve been hammering my long game. It was hitting the ball so well, I actually scaled back on a few holes. I feel confident on this course. I felt steady.”

Iniakov also felt elated to see teammate Lucinda Wu earn medalist honors with a 2-under 70, with freshman Isabella Sun carding an even-par 72 and fellow freshman Allison Chan finishing with a 75.

“I missed three birdies on the first three holes, Wu said. “At that point, I changed my attitude of saying ‘this has to go in’ to ‘I want it to go in.’ It helped me relax.”

Wu, who shot a 70 at last year’s CCS finals as a freshman, used the league finals as a measuring stick for the section finals, where she got reacquainted with the challenging greens and gusty winds on the back nine.

“The winds tend to pick up in the afternoon,” Wu said. “The greens were a little slow. The ball was moving to the right, even on 3-foot attempts.”

Sun had the only eagle on the day. That coupled with a birdie enabled her to crack the top three in her first league championship meet, which is 18 holes instead of the nine holes played during the regular season.

“I regulated 16 of the 18 holes,” Sun said. “For my first time, I thought I played pretty well. The greens were tricky. I struggled with my putting. I’m still grasping a new technique.”

Carmel will join Stevenson at the CCS finals after finishing second overall, with junior Megan Ikemiya finishing with a 78, the third straight year she has improved her score at the finals.

“I had 38 putt attempts,” Ikemiya said. “Normal would be roughly 30. I was missing short putts. But it’s the best I’ve played here. So that’s something to build off of.”

Ikemiya, who shot 12 strokes better than her freshman season two years ago, believes she has the answer to ironing out some of her putting deficiencies on a course not regarded as a putting paradise.

“The greens break a ton here,” Ikemiya said. “It was hard to judge the speed. It’s all about confidence. When I get that feeling that I am losing that confidence, I need to step away and reassess myself.”

Hoping to extend their season as individuals include Pacific Grove’s Harper Szpur (78) and Serena Hunter (79). The CCS will take seven additional individuals from all the league finals.

Watsonville won the Mission Division title with a team score of 616, edging runner-up Alvarez and third-place finisher King City. The Eagles’ Jocelyn Calderon was medalist with a 99.