RIVERSIDE, CALIF. - The Sonoma State men's golf team traveled to Riverside to play at Victoria Country Club for the CCAA Championships. After a recent second-place team finish at the NCAA Regional Preview, the Seawolves entered this tournament as the highest-ranked team in attendance. Seven out of eight attending teams enter ranked in the top 50; Sonoma State ranked 10th and Cal State San Marcos ranked 12th.
The men started the tournament in poor fashion, as not a single player shot under par.
Jules Lavigne led the pack shooting a respectable even par 72.
Lucas Happy carried his weight and shot 73 (+1) while the rest of the team all shot 75 (+3). SSU sat in last place after day one with a team score of 295 (+7), four shots behind the next-best team. As this tournament was played throughout the course of three days, the team was able to head back to the hotel and regroup after each round, poised to make a run in the final two days.
The second round brought some fresh attitudes and better scores.
Colin Huang posted a great round of 69 (-3) to help the Seawolves. Both Lavigne and
Aidan Oliver shot a solid 71 (-1) and
Griffin Pace bettered his score from the previous day and shot even par 72 to round out the group. Happy was not far off and finished the day with a birdie to shoot 73 (+1). Their scores added up to a very nice 283 (-5) to shoot the third-best round of the day. With this, Sonoma State would jump three spots into fifth place.
As the sun rose on the final day of the tournament, the Seawolves looked to make a push. Lavigne would go on to make a great final effort to climb the leaderboard as he finished the tournament with a score of 69 (-3). Huang had another day of solid golf, finishing with two closing birdies to shoot 70 (-2) and Pace would go on to shoot 73 (+1). Both Oliver and Happy shoot a pair of 78's to round out the team's scores. With a final round score of 290 (+2), they were able to maintain a fifth-place finish in a very competitive 8-team field.
Griffin Pace finished the three round event in the top five in par 3 scoring,
Jules Lavigne was top five in par 4 scoring and
Colin Huang was top five in par 5 scoring, finishing the tournament 7-under on those holes.
With a great final round, Lavigne would go on to secure a tie for fourth place individually and Huang would also rack up another top-ten finish in his first year as a Seawolf. Lavigne's top five finish would go down as the 5th straight conference tournament for SSU with a top five individual finisher. Lavigne and Huang were the only two Sonoma State golfers to finish the event under par.
With an impressive 2022-23 campaign including 7 top five team finishes, head coach
Val Verhunce and his group will await their seeding in the 2023 NCAA West Regional, with the regional selections set to be released next week. Sonoma State will play host to the men's golf regional this year as it will be held at the team's home course here in Rohnert Park, Foxtail Golf Club, starting on Thursday, May 11th.
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