CARLSBAD, Calif. – Arizona men's golf historic run through the NCAA Championship added another chapter Tuesday morning after a thrilling 3-2 match play win over No. 3 seed Vanderbilt in the quarterfinals.
The Wildcats will take on No. 7 seed UCLA Tuesday afternoon starting at 1:25 p.m. PT, with coverage on the Golf Channel starting at 3:00 p.m. PT.
Prior to this year, Arizona had not advanced to the match play portion of the NCAA Championship and have now picked up their first win as well.
Similar to other rounds this week, Arizona struggled out of the gate on the front nine but was able to turn it on in the middle of the round and then make the putts necessary down the stretch.
The first point for Arizona came from
Taishi Moto, who posted a 4&3 win over Chase Nevins. Moto dropped the first hole but squared the match with a birdie on the fifth hole. Another birdie on 10 put Moto in front and then birdies on 13 and 15 closed out the match.
Point number two for Arizona came from the second match out on the course, featuring
Tianyi Xiong and Jon Ed Steed. Like Moto, Xiong also lost the first hole and fell two down after a bogey on the sixth hole. He pulled back to within one after a birdie on the eighth hole and then a birdie on 10 evened the match. The match remained tied until Xiong won three straight holes – 14, 15 and 16 – to secure the point.
Filip Jakubcik dropped his match to Will Hartman, 6&5, and
William Wistrand fell to Ryan Downes, 4&3, to tie the match at 2-2.
The final match on the course was
Zach Pollo against Wells Williams, a pair of seniors looking to extend their college careers one more round.
Pollo won the first hole but Williams answered right back to tie the match with a birdie on the second. Williams took the lead on the sixth only to see Pollo respond with a birdie on seven to bring the match back to tied. Pollo went up one with a par on the ninth hole, but Williams came back with an eagle on the par 5 tenth hole before Pollo went 2-up with wins on 11 and 12.
Pollo was still one-up when the pair stepped to the tee on the par 3 16
th hole. Williams' tee shot ended up 15 feet from the pin while Pollo ended up in the greenside bunker, and Williams made the birdie to tie the match. Williams continued the momentum on the 17
th hole as well, where he holed out from 140 yards out in the fairway to take the 1-up lead and put the pressure back on Pollo for the final hole.
On the final hole, an errant tee shot well left into the water by Williams opened the door for Pollo to even the match. When Williams hit is fourth shot into the greenside bunker, Pollo was able to get up and down from just off the green to force extra holes.
Both players hit brilliant second shots into the first extra hole – No. 1 – and after Pollo's putt missed on the low side, Williams had a put of 10 feet to end Arizona's season. But his putt missed on the high side and play continued on to No. 15. Williams was in the middle of the fairway and his approach shot from 120 yards out ended up on the green, but 30 feet short and right. Pollo was left of the fairway on the hardpan dirt, but just over 100 yards from the flag. After discussion with head coach
Jim Anderson about which club to use 58-degree wedge or 54-degree wedge, they settled on the 58-degree.
Pollo made great contact and the ball bounded a little long and right of the pin, but used the slope of the green to spin back to 4-feet from the hole. When Williams putt stayed out to the right, Pollo stepped up and nailed the putt to allow Arizona to advance.
