EUGENE, Ore. – Clinging to a 1-shot lead entering Tuesday's final-round, Santa Clara men's golf couldn't finish and fell into a third-place tie at the Duck Invitational with an 869 total, three strokes behind co-champions Liberty and host Oregon.

"It wasn't a victory but we hung in there," head coach Rob Miller said dejectedly. "A few bogeys down the stretch did us in. It got exciting at the end, but Oregon and Liberty closed better than we did."

The Broncos scored a final-round 290 and were overtaken by the co-champs, who each carded a 285, to finish tied with Oregon State. But they claimed their second straight top-5 finish and sixth in nine events this season.  

"We beat three of the top 50 teams so that should help our ranking," Miller noted. "And losing by four shots to Oregon on their home course isn't a bad showing. We righted the ship over the last two tournaments with a couple of top-5 finishes."

Individually the Broncos, ranked No. 52 nationally by Golfstat.com, were led by sophomore Matt McCarty, who carded a final-round 2-under 69 to tie for seventh at even-par 213. Senior Hayden Shieh finished in 11th-place with a 2-over 215 total.

"Another nice tournament for Matt," Miller noted. "Having two players finish around the top-10 really helps the team."

Junior Derek Ackerman nearly gave the Broncos a third top-20 finisher, but he dropped 10 spots on the individual leaderboard after a final-round 76 put him tied for 24th at 8-over 221.

The bottom of the lineup had two counting scores on Tuesday with Will DelBiaggio carding a 2-over 73 to finish tied for 43rd at 12-over 225. Freshman Zack Kaneshiro shot 3-over 74 to finish at 13-over 226.

"Zack and Boots gave us good scores today," Miller said. "We haven't had that kind of production from the bottom of the lineup in some time."

The Broncos are back in action April 8 when they tee it up at the Geiberger Invitational in Palm Springs in their last event before the WCC Championship.

Santa Clara Final Individual Results

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