TEXARKANA, Ark. — UTSA fell to UAB in the match play semifinal round of the Conference USA Tournament on Tuesday evening at Texarkana Country Club (par 72/6,969 yards).
The No. 38-ranked and top-seeded Blazers built an early lead in the five matches and held off the Roadrunners down the stretch with three wins to advance to Wednesday's championship contest. UAB, which posted the top score through Tuesday's final round of 54 holes of stroke play, will face the winner of the Louisiana Tech-North Texas match, which was suspended due to darkness and will resume in the morning.
"We put up a good fight in match play, but UAB was really good today," eighth-year head coach John Knauer said. "We got behind early, put up a furious rally but fell short. Still, this was a great day for the UTSA golf program and the future is very bright."
In the first match to tee off, UTSA freshman Sean Meehan took an early lead against Lee Hodges after a birdie-two on No. 3. Hodges answered by tying the match on the next hole and then eventually went up by four holes through the front nine. He pushed the advantage to five with a par on the 11th and held that margin through No. 14 to clinch it, 5/4.
UTSA junior Bryce Alley and UAB's Martin Rohwer were all square through four before the Blazer took a four-hole lead into the back nine. Rower increased the margin to five holes after a birdie on the par-five 12th beat Alley's par, and he then clinched the match after 14 with a 5/4 count.
Roadrunners sophomore Zander Lozano battled with Taylor Eyster through 16 holes in a tight contest. Eyster, who captured the C-USA individual crown earlier in the day, took an early lead after his par beat Lozano's bogey on the first. Lozano, who earned C-USA All-Tournament accolades by tying for fourth place in stroke play, evened things up on the next hole with a birdie.
The match remained all square through four before Eyster reclaimed the lead with a birdie-three on No. 5. He pushed his advantage to as many as four before Lozano pulled to within two after registering a birdie on the par-five 12th and a par-three on the next. Eyster went back up by three, only to see Lozano get it back to two with a par-four on the 15th. However, Eyster clinched the match, 3/2, and secured the UAB team win with a birdie on the par-five 16th.
Brett Hogan rallied from a four-hole deficit after eight holes against John Hayden. The senior from Calgary, Alberta, won the next three and then went all square on the 14th after his par beat Hayden's double bogey. The two players parred the next hole and Hayden went back up by one after 16 when the match was called.
Fellow senior J.J. Lindsey opened his match with a win on the first hole and the Adkins native carried that advantage through seven before Will Cannon birdied No. 8 to knot the score. The contest remained all square through 12 holes before Cannon took the lead with a par-three on the 11th. He increased the advantage to three with a par on the 16th when play was halted.
UTSA climbed into the fourth and final spot for the semifinals with an even-par effort in the final round of stroke play earlier on Tuesday. Led by a 2-under 70 from Hogan and a 72 by Lozano, the Roadrunners carded a 288 to break a fifth-place tie with UTEP and move past Middle Tennessee by two shots for a chance to continue play.
UAB posted a 1-over 865 to finish first, followed by Louisiana Tech (873), North Texas (876), UTSA (882), Middle Tennessee (884), UTEP (887), Old Dominion (890), Charlotte (894), Marshall (894), Western Kentucky (900), Rice (912), Southern Miss (924) and Florida Atlantic (929).
Hogan's 70 featured an eagle-three on his second hole of the day, setting the stage for the rally. He added three birdies to help negate three bogeys in his final round en route to a 2-over 218 (76-72-70) for his ninth career top-10 finish and the top conference showing of his career.
Meanwhile, Lozano registered the program's best individual league effort in five years by tying for fourth with a 1-over 217 (72-73-72). The Fair Oaks Ranch native was steady in Tuesday's round, as he wrote down 16 pars and one birdie to offset a bogey en route to being named to the C-USA All-Tournament Team. It marked the fourth top-10 finish of his sophomore season and the sixth of his career, and it is the highest individual conference finish since Ryan Werre tied for third at the 2011 Southland Conference Championship.
Meehan tied for 29th with a 226 (80-74-72) after matching Lozano with a 72 on Tuesday. He recorded a hole-in-one on the par-three, 161-yard 11th and also birdied four holes on the front nine.
Alley tied for 28th with a 228 (74-80-74—228) and Lindsey tied for 52nd with a 233 (73-83-77) in helping guide UTSA to its best conference finish since a fourth-place showing at the 2013 Western Athletic Conference Championship.
Eyster defeated Louisiana Tech's Victor Lange on the first hole of a sudden-death playoff to claim the individual crown. Both players finished stroke play at 7-under 209.
