USC wins Gifford Collegiate in tiebreaker over Stanford
Rico Hoey earned medalist honors on Monday
(USC Athletics Photo)
NAPA, CA (November 9, 2016) -- When they final putt had dropped top-seed USC and second-seed Stanford were in a dead height. The two Pac-12 powers had battled it out over the course six matches but still a Gifford Collegiate champion could not be crowned. So with the proceedings tied 2-2-2 things came down to a tiebreaker and because the Trojans won more holes the Trojans emerged with their second consecutive victory to close out the fall season.
"It was a great way to finish the fall," USC Coach Chris Zambri said. "Everybody played well. Everybody was under par during stroke play and kept it going in match play. Cheng did a great job coming back today and made a big putt on 18 to halve it. Andrew and Justin had big wins and Rico did great against a really tough opponent."
USC senior Rico Hoey had a chance to win the tournament outright but he lost his 1 up lead on the final hole against Stanford junior Franklin Huang meaning that things had to be decided by the tiebreaker.
Match Play Day One Recap
The two wins picked by No. 18 USC were recorded by sophomore Justin Suh (3&2) and junior Andrew Levitt (4&3). Suh took the lead in his match on the 3rd hole and worked on expanding it the rest of the day while Levitt took a 1 up advantage on the first hole and never looked back.
"We are very happy with the way we performed this week," Levitt said. "Everyone shot under par during the stroke play portion and found some success in match play as well. It is definitely something we can build off going into the spring."
12th ranked Stanford saw senior's Maverick McNealy (3&1) and Viraat Badhwar (3&2) register victories. McNealy's win came in a heavy weight battle against USC's Sean Crocker that saw McNealy lead from start to finish.
The first match of the title tilt was an all-square decision between USC freshman Cheng Jin and junior Jeffrey Swegle.
In the third place match five-seed Washington and six-seed Washington tied, four-seed Colorado placed fifth with a 4-2 win over three-seed UCLA and eight-seed Wisconsin defeated seven-seed USF 5-1.
-USC Athletics contributed to this story