CARLSBAD, Calif. – After clutch performances at the end of stroke play and in the quarterfinals of match play, the Arizona men's golf team saw its season come to a close in the semifinals against UCLA, 3-1, on Tuesday at Omni La Costa Resort & Spa.
The tie for third finish matches the Wildcats best finish in the NCAA Championship since a third place finish in 2004 and ends one of the best postseason runs in the history of the program.
"So much of golf is about resilience," said Arizona head coach
Jim Anderson. "If there's something that you really want, it's not going to come easy. We were ready for that against UCLA and our team showed a bunch of fight. Of course we are disappointed we didn't come out on the right side of the match, but I'm so proud of our guys and the year we were able to enjoy together. We are sad to see our seniors go, but there are so many memories that we all made together and that's what we will remember."
While the score may look like a comfortable win for UCLA, it was anything but that.
The first match out was
Taishi Moto against Josh Kim for the Bruins, and it was Kim that surged ahead to a 3-up lead through seven holes before Moto responded to win the next two holes. The match remained a 1-up advantage for UCLA until Moto made birdie on 14, hitting the green from more than 230 yards away and then rolling in the putt.
A bogey on 15 put UCLA back in front and it remained that way going to the final hole. Moto put himself in position to force extra holes but his birdie putt on the last missed on the low side and UCLA got the first point of the match.
The second match featured Tiany Xiong against UCLA's Tyler Loree and Xiong had a 1-up lead through seven holes. A bogey by the Wildcat on the eighth and then a birdie by Loree on the 10
th hole gave UCLA the lead and he would go on to hand Xiong the 3&2 loss to put the Wildcats in a 2-0 hole.
Next it was time for
Filip Jakubcik to get the Wildcats on the board, taking a 1-up lead on the fifth hole and not relinquishing that lead the rest of the day on the way to a 3&2 win that brought Arizona to within 2-1 for the match overall.
Freshman
William Wistrand was locked in a battle with UCLA's Alex Papayoanou as the fourth match out. Wistrand won the first hole with a par but gave up that lead with a bogey on the third hole. Papayoanou won the fifth and sixth holes to go 2-up and held that lead when the pair reached the 15
th hole. It was there that Wistrand rolled in his first birdie of the day to cut the deficit in half. On the 16
th hole, Wistrand hit his tee shot on the par 3 over the green and was unable to get up-and-down for par while Papayoanou was able to make par and push his lead back to 2-up.
While Wistrand was battling Papayoanou,
Zach Pollo was in the midst of another late rally of his own against Baylor Larrabee. Trailing by as many as three through 10 holes, Pollo won the 11
th and 15
th holes and then his par on 17 was good enough to even the match heading to the final hole. Both players found the fairway on their tee shots at the last before Larrabee stepped up and reach the green of the par five in two shots. Pollo attempted to match the effort but missed to the left of the green to setup a challenging up-and-down opportunity to keep the match tied. He was able to hit a beautiful bump and run shot that left him 4 feet for birdie.
Before Pollo or Larrabee could hit their putt, Wistrand was facing an uphill putt on 17 to extend his match and the match overall. The right-to-left putt rolled by on the left side and UCLA had its third point to clinch the match.
[7] UCLA def. [6] Arizona – National Semifinal
Josh Kim (UCLA) def.
Taishi Moto (ARIZ), 1-UP
Tylor Loree (UCLA) def.
Tianyi Xiong (ARIZ), 3&2
Filip Jakubcik (ARIZ) def. Kyle An (UCLA), 3&2
Alex Papayoanou (UCLA) def.
William Wistrand (ARIZ), 2&1
Zach Pollo (ARIZ) vs. Baylor Larrabee, unfinished
