SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – The most successful season in the Virginia men’s golf program’s history ended with a close loss to Florida during the quarterfinal round of match play at the NCAA Championships. The seventh-seeded Cavaliers lost to the second-seeded Gators 3-2 during the final match that was not decided until the 18th hole.
Virginia made its first appearance in match play since the NCAA adopted that format to decide the team national champion in 2009. The Cavaliers’ previous-best finish was a 10th-place showing in 2017. It was also Florida’s first time playing in the match play round at the national championship tournament.
The Cavaliers put the first point on the board when freshman Bryan Lee handed newly-crowned NCAA individual champion Fred Biondi a 6&5 defeat. Lee picked up wins on the third, fourth, seventh and ninth holes to be 4Up after the opening nine. Wins on 10 and 11 increased his lead to 6Up as he cruised to the victory, never losing a hole to Biondi.
Shortly afterwards, John DuBois put Florida on the board with a 3&2 win against Pietro Bovari. DuBois won two of the first three holes but Bovari battled back twice to even the match and that’s where it stood when the two competitors made the turn. Dubois picked up a win on the 10th hole and then put the match away with victories on 15 and 16.
UVA’s Deven Patel and the Gators’ Matthew Kress battled back-and-four in their match with neither golfer gaining more than a one-hole advantage until Kress picked up back-to-back wins on 14 and 15. Patel roared back with three consecutive victories to put UVA ahead 2-1 with his 1Up win.
Ricky Castillo defeated UVA freshman Ben James 6&5 to even the score again. Castillo won the first hole and never trailed in their match.
The deciding point came from Florida’s Yuxin Lin who rallied to defeat George Duangmanee 2Up. After winning the second hole, Duangmanee kept the lead through 15 holes, leading at one point 3Up through 11 holes. Lin rallied to win the final three holes and secure the victory for the Gators.
“We played with Florida a couple of times this year in tournaments and there is no doubt they’re a great team,” Sargent said. “We don’t have a lot of match play experience on this team, but we were not intimidated today. We were expecting to win and had ourselves in that position. We had them down with three or four holes to go and were in control of the match. But congratulation to Florida. They did what they…
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