SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – Led by Matt McCarty's 4-under 138, Santa Clara men's golf completed 36 holes of the Olympic Club Intercollegiate alone in fourth place at 4-over 572.
The Broncos entered the clubhouse two-shots behind WCC rival and No. 28 BYU. Cal State Fullerton will take a five-shot advantage over Nevada into Tuesday's final round.
"It's an improvement," head coach Rob Miller said of his team's play. "Overall we played respectably. It would be nice to beat BYU, the No. 28 team in the country. That would do a lot for our confidence."
McCarty followed up his even-par morning round with a 4-under 67 over the next 18 holes, helping the Broncos to a 10-shot improvement. McCarty ended the day tied for second with the No. 5 ranked player in the country, BYU's Peter Kuest. The two are four-swings behind Cal State Fullerton's Derek Castillo.
"Matt had a good day," Miller added. "To be tied with the No. 5 player in the country is an accomplishment and he would like to finish it off."
Senior Derek Ackerman carded a second-round 1-under 70 to climb 15 spots on the individual leaderboard into a tie for 15th with six other golfers, including teammate Berk Harvey, at 2-over 144. Harvey had identical rounds of 72.
Competing as an individual, sophomore Jack Avrit went 72-71 to grab a share of 11th place at 1 over 143. "Once again our indy had one of our best scores," Miller joked.
Konrad Brauckmeyer (77-72) and Will Del Biaggio tied for 41st at 7-over 149.
"Overall our play was solid," Miller said. "We want to finish strong and get some momentum for Stanford."
Tuesday's final round at the 6,840-yard, par-71 Olympic Club Lake Course gets underway with a shotgun start at 8:45 a.m. PT. Live scoring will be available at Golfstat.com.
Santa Clara 2nd Round Individual Results
| T2. | Matt McCarty | 71-67 = 138 (-4) |
| T11. | Jack Avrit (I) | 72-71 = 143 (+1) |
| T15. | Derek Ackerman | 74-70 = 144 (+2) |
| T15. | Berk Harvey | 72-72 = 144 (+2) |
| T41. | Konrad Brauckmeyer | 77-72 = 149 (+7) |
| T41. | Will Del Biaggio | 74-75 = 149 (+7) |
(I) competing as an individual
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