NO. 15 UNLV MEN’S GOLF NARROWLY MISSES SPOT IN FINAL FOUR
Rebels fall to No. 1 Vanderbilt on final hole in Elite Eight at NCAA Championship
It came down to the 90th and final hole of match play, but a clutch birdie putt on 18 by No. 1 Vanderbilt’s Theo Humphrey was the deciding factor as No. 15 UNLV men’s golf narrowly missed advancing to the Final Four at the 2017 NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Championships, which are being held at Rich Harvest Farms.
The Rebels, seeded eighth after tying for seventh in stroke play on Monday, lost to the top-seeded Commodores by a score of 3-2 on Tuesday.
UNLV held a 2-0 lead in the match as Rebel junior John Oda defeated Will Gordon 6 & 5 and senior Taylor Montgomery won 3 & 1 over John Augenstein. Vanderbilt evened things up with a 4 & 2 win by Matthias Schwab over junior Shintaro Ban, while sophomore Harry Hall lost an intense back-and-forth match to Patrick Martin, 1 up.
That ultimately left things up to freshman Justin Kim, who rallied to win holes 16 and 17 to cut the deficit to one heading into the final hole against Humphrey. Humphrey’s birdie putt from the fringe went in to decide it.
“I really liked the fight of our team today,” UNLV head coach Dwaine Knight said. “We fought so hard at the end and almost had a chance. That’s what you are looking for out of your team, and we were in a position to advance past the No. 1 team in the country. Obviously, we wanted it to go in our favor, but our guys gave all that effort and put it all out on the line.”
With the victory, Vanderbilt moved on to face fifth-seeded Oregon in Tuesday afternoon’s semifinals. That winner will face either Oklahoma (2 seed) or Illinois (3 seed) for the NCAA title on Wednesday.
UNLV’s season ended with its second Elite Eight appearance at the NCAA finals in the last five years. In 2013, the Rebels lost to Georgia Tech in a playoff after their quarterfinal match.
The Rebels entered the NCAA Championship after winning the Mountain West Championship for the second straight time in April, then won its first NCAA Regional (West Lafayette, Ind.) title in 12 years earlier this month.
“We just kept getting better as a team from about mid-spring to now and really became a good team,” Knight added. “It would have been great to keep going because I know we would have been competitive. We played at a very high level for a long time and this is the kind of competition you really look forward to. We also have a lot to look forward to in the future.”
In 14 total tournaments this season, the Rebels recorded three team victories and finished in the top three a total of nine times.
There were a total of 30 teams and 156 individuals competing at the NCAA finals. The field was cut on Sunday to 15 teams with nine individuals not on those teams also advancing to Monday’s final stroke-play round. Eight teams advanced to Tuesday morning’s quarterfinals.
This year’s NCAA Championship marked UNLV’s 20th all-time appearance. The Rebels won the national title in 1998, and their previous best finish at the event was a second-place showing in 1996. UNLV now has recorded 11 top-eight team finishes. The Rebels also boast two individual national champions – Ryan Moore in 2004 and Warren Schutte in 1991.