CARY - The Green Hope girls golf team and Athens Drive’s Sarah Bae moved one step closer to achieving regular-season crowns Wednesday at the newly renovated Lochmere Golf Club.

In the second-to-last regular-season match, Green Hope easily won with 110 strokes, followed by Apex (125), Holly Springs and Middle Creek (127 apiece) and Fuquay-Varina (135).

Bae, who won the regionals the past two years, was the medalist with an even-par 35, but the Athens senior felt she could have shot a stroke or two lower at her home course.

“I didn’t play as well as I would have liked to, but I was working on some specific things and was trying to get used to that,” said Bae, who intends to play at High Point University next year.

The Falcons cruised, widening their lead in the race for the regular-season conference title. Despite Meaghan Symonds resting with a sore back, teammates Maddie MacClug (36), Maddie Lee (37) and sophomore Amanda Yannoni (37) posted great scores.

“We asked them how bad did they want it, and it’s clear that they let their golf speak for themselves,” Green Hope coach Donna Lerner said. “We went in today with a four-point lead, now it’s six and a half. We’re very proud of them.”

Other top scorers at Lochmere, which has new upgrades to its greens and bunkers, included Fuquay-Varina’s Catherine Ashworth (36), Lee County’s Muk Shoomee (36), Middle Creek’s Britney Smith (37) and Betsy Dohrer (40), Leigha Holt (38) and Apex’ s Maddie Merritt (40).

Merritt, a junior, senior Cari Albritton (41) and sophomore Maria Cassas (44) helped Apex finish in second place for the second time this season.

“We’ve got a good group of experienced golfers who have been playing together for three years,” said Apex coach Michael Muse, whose Cougars finished in third last year at the regionals and qualified for the state tournament.

Overall, the coaches and players were looking forward to the upcoming regionals, which will take place Oct. 22-23 at Pine Hollow Golf Club in Clayton.

Athens coach Tony Alcon, whose Jaguars captured three of the past four state titles, has a young team this season, but he has been impressed with their improvement over the year. Alcon also would like to see Bae, whose 2012 scoring average is 35, achieve something that has eluded her the past three years.

“Sarah is a terrific competitor, regional champ the past two years, but it would be a great achievement to see her make the All-Conference team for the first time and to earn Player of the Year honors,” Alcon said.

Bae has had the conference’s lowest stroke average in each of the last two seasons but didn’t compete in the minimum of eight conference matches to be eligible for the award.

The final regular-season match will be at Fuquay-Varina’s Bentwinds Golf & Country Club on Monday, followed by the Tri-9 Conference tournament at Sanford Golf Course on Oct. 15.