Sept. 27, 2002
SANTA CLARA, Calif. - The Santa Clara University men's golf squad will begin its 2002-2003 season this weekend at the Vandal Fall Classic hosted by the University of Idaho in Moscow, Idaho. The Broncos will play two rounds on Saturday, followed by the final round Sunday morning.
Head coach John Kennaday takes his five players into Idaho to play in the Vandal Fall Classic for the first time ever. The tournament will be played on the University of Idaho Golf Course and will feature teams from Gonzaga, Boise State, Washington State, Loyola Marymount, Saint Mary's College, Cal Poly, Utah State, British Columbia, Idaho State, Simon Fraser and Southern Utah. The University of Idaho varsity and junior varsity squads will round out the 14 teams in the competition.
Playing for Santa Clara over the three-round, two-day tournament will be juniors Chris DeMartini and Justin Ahasic. DeMartini is in his third season on the Mission Campus while Ahasic was the top qualifier for this tournament, firing a 64 that included four bogies in his return from shoulder surgery that kept him sidelined all of last season.
Joining the two juniors are sophomore Matt Klenz and freshmen Vincent Aicale and Eric Lillibridge. Klenz finished his freshman season last year with the team's second lowest scoring average at 74.9 and having won the UC Irvine Anteater Tournament in the fall. Aicale and Lillibridge will both see their first collegiate action over the weekend having come to Santa Clara after stellar high school careers at Miramonte and Justin-Sienna High Schools, respectively.
"We have a very young team," said Kennaday, "I think we are very fortunate to have Justin Ahasic make the lineup coming off shoulder surgery like he did. I did not expect that to happen so soon and it will be good to have his and Chris DeMartini's leadership around this weekend.
"Our freshman class this year appears to be everything that I could have ever wanted, but we shall see where we stand following the rigors of traveling and class. The good part about it though is that all of the guys are good young men, which will help us out. The return of Matt Klenz will also be very beneficial as he was one of, if not the most consistent players for us last year and I think he will continue that for us this year."
Following this weekend's tournament in Idaho, the Broncos will return to action on October 21-22 at the Countrywide Invitational hosted by Cal State Fullerton in southern California.
