NAPA, Calif. -- Despite a Wednesday low of 69 by Brandon Lee, matching his lowest round of the season, the Sonoma State men's golf team placed second in the 2016 CCAA Men's Golf Championships with a 3-2 loss to Cal State East Bay in the Medal/Match Play final at Silverado Resort & Spa in Napa.  It is the highest finish for the Seawolves in the conference event since 2009 when they finished first in back-to-back seasons (2008 and 2009).

With the finish, Sonoma State, which was ranked at No. 4 in the West Region entering play this week, is still expected to earn an at-large bid into the 2016 NCAA Division II West/South Central Regional Championship on May 2-4 at the University of New Mexico Golf Course in Las Cruces. 

Ten teams from the West Region will qualify for the regional, three of which will have earned their spot via an automatic qualifier.  By way of its first CCAA title in men's golf, Cal State East Bay earned the AQ from the CCAA, Western Washington grabbed the AQ from the Great Northwest Athletic Conference and Dixie State is six holes from capturing the AQ from the Pacific West Conference.  The top five teams in the 20-team regional field will then advance to the NCAA Division II Championship finals May 17-21 at Green Valley Ranch in Denver, Colorado.

On Wednesday, Kenny Maroney fired a 77, but lost to Joel Keylor (74) before Justin Shluker's 72 was one stroke short of beating Chad Hall (71) to give the Pioneers a 2-0 lead.  Lee's 69 beat Adam Stone (75) and Spencer Clapp carded a 72 to beat Jonathan Mulvany (76) to knot the match at 2-2.  It came down to the final group to decide the CCAA champion, and it was CSUEB's Owen Hutchison (73) to best Nicolas Daniels (77) for the title.