The golf season wrapped up for the Penn State Nittany Lions men's golf team this week with an impressive showing at the Hooter's Men's Collegiate Match Play Championships.
Despite its 16th and lowest seeding, the team won three of its four matches against the toughest competition of the year to place ninth overall.
Penn State fell to number one seed Georgia Tech in the first round of play held on Sunday.
That was the last match Penn State would lose in the tournament as they went on to defeat Purdue, Kentucky and UCLA on Monday and Tuesday.
After their close defeat at the hands of Georgia Tech on the last hole of the first round, the level of competition let up slightly as the Lions had to face ninth-seed Purdue, fourth-seed Kentucky and finally 10th seed UCLA in the consolation bracket final. Kentucky came into the tournament ranked seventh in the nation.
The five Penn State golfers went 3-1-1 against Kentucky with seniors Greg Pieczynski, Ted Neville and freshman Robert Rohanna winning their matches. Sophomore Marco Poccia lost, and junior Mark Leon tied to round out Penn State scores in the third round.
"We were really happy, really pumped to beat Kentucky," Leon said.
"I think this kind of head to head format almost means more than a traditionally scored tournament because you have to beat the other teams one by one."
Pieczynski said he was disappointed with Penn State's seeding in the tournament, saying, "strength of schedule is a big factor in determining the rankings, and our team can't make it to all the tournaments the southern teams can go to."
The team voiced its displeasure at the tournament when it met the man in charge of rankings, believing they didn't get enough credit for their play Pieczyinski said.
The consolation bracket final for ninth place came down to a 2-2-1 score at the end of play on Tuesday.
Penn State won in a tiebreaker by winning its two matches by a combined four holes while losing by combined three in the other two matches.
"We feel we're becoming more of a major player at national college level because we've been given a chance," Leon said.
