Men's Golf Falls To No. 9 California At Del Walker Match Play
Feb. 28, 2012
LONG BEACH, Calif. - Senior Jonnie Motomochi continued his strong play with a 2 and 1 victory at the Del Walker Match Play Championship on Tuesday, but the Oregon State men's golf team was unable to defeat No. 9 California in the third-place match.
The Beavers beat No. 4 USC in a tiebreaker on Monday before falling to No. 5 UCLA in the afternoon to set up today's final round match against the Golden Bears for third place. Cal won four of the five matches against Oregon State at the par-70, 6,633-yard Virginia Country Club, while the Bruins defeated Washington 3-2 to win the team title.
"I think the team is a bit disappointed with the result, but I'm excited about what has come from this week," Oregon State head coach Jon Reehoorn said. "Match play is such a different animal with the intensity and how you approach it. I think we can learn from this week and apply it to some upcoming stroke play events.
"We had the opportunity to go against three top-10 teams in the country and that can do nothing but help us get better," he added.
Motomochi got the 2 and 1 win over Cal's Jeff Hamm on Tuesday and finished the tournament with a 2-1 record after knocking off Sam Smith of USC 2 up and falling to Pontus Widegren of UCLA 2 up on Monday.
Senior Alex Moore lost to Max Homa 2 and 1 on Tuesday and finished the tourney with a 0-1-2 record after halving matches with Jeffrey Kang of USC and UCLA's Patrick Cantlay on Monday, while junior Nick Sherwood recorded the other Beavers' win, a 2 up victory over Steve Lim of USC, and finished with a 1-2 record after losses to Pedro Figueiredo of UCLA (5 and 4) and Cal's Brandon Hagy (4 and 3).
Senior Casey King and junior Nick Chianello each lost their match against California golfers on Tuesday as King fell to Keelan Kilpatrick 3 and 2 and Chianello dropped a 3 and 1 decision to Pace Johnson.
Oregon State returns to action next Monday and Tuesday, March 5-6, when it travels to Fresno, Calif., to compete in the Fresno State Lexus Classic, a 6-count-5 event, that will be held at the Fort Washington Golf Club.
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