Thursday, May 21, 2015

CONOVER, N.C. – The Simon Fraser men’s golf team concluded their season after losing to St. Leo in the quarterfinal round of NCAA Championship match play at the Rock Barn Golf Course in Conover, N.C. Thursday morning.

St. Leo would earn three and one-half points to beat the Clan who had one and one-half. The Lions, who tied for thrd in stroke play Wednesday, were the four seed in match play while SFU was the No. 5 seed.

Simon Fraser, which finished fifth in the three-round stroke play portion Wednesday, ends the season tied as the fifth best team in division II.

Chris Crisologo and Bret Thompson would, respectively, beat and tie their best rounds played at the championships, but the Clan couldn’t overcome three losses by less than two strokes.

The Clans John Mlikotic was the first to finish. After a back-and-forth battle with St. Leo’s James Jessop, Mlikotic was defeated by just one stroke as Jessop ended at 8-over par and Mlikotic 9-over.

Crisologo concluded his dominant week of play by crushing his opponent by 13 strokes for SFU’s only victory. His 18-hole score of 68 was the lowest round he carded at the Rock Barn Golf Course. It was also the second lowest score recorded in the opening round of match play.

Thompson was down by two strokes for much of his match and couldn’t recover, losing by that same margin. He did end the day with the Clans second-lowest round, carding a 73.

Down two matches to one and needing just one win to advance (as SFU held the tiebreaker), Kevin Vigna would tie his match and Alan Tolusso would lose by one stroke in the last three holes.

Crisologo and Tolusso had one of the best weeks of their season at the championships. Crisologo tied for eighth individually in the stroke play rounds, missing a top five finish by just a single stroke. Tolusso didn’t compete at the GNAC Championships and didn’t finish in the NCAA regional round, but shot a three-round total of 214 to tie for 17th at the championship and crushing his season average of 226.

St. Leo will face top seeded Lynn in the semifinal round later Thursday. Nova Southeastern and Central Missouri also won as all four top seeds advanced to the semifinals.