SANTA CLARA, Calif. – In the midst of the spring season, Santa Clara men's soccer hosted its 10^th annual golf tournament at Cinnabar Hills Golf Club in San Jose on April 29. Alumni and supports of the program came out in great numbers and enjoyed beautiful weather and great items up for action.

"Our golf tournament was a great opportunity to reconnect with alums and friends of the program; guys we just don't get to see enough," said Santa Clara head coach Cam Rast. "It was a beautiful day out at Cinnabar Hills and we had a great turnout in terms of the groups that came. We were able to honor a soccer builder in our community, Larry Bingham and his wife Theresa Bingham, who has done so much for soccer in the area. He has endowed a scholarship at Santa Clara and put state of the art training facilities in which makes a tangible difference."

The day opened with a lunch where players could mingle before heading out to the links. There were prizes available on the holes, including a car. The day wound down with a live auction and a raffle to help raise money for the program. With people coming from all over the country, the day served as a way to reconnect before heading back home. 

The items up for auction included four tickets anywhere at Petco Park in San Diego for a Padres game that included airfare and two nights in a hotel. The package was donated by the owner of the San Diego Padres. There were also exclusive wines that are off the market, vacations to Palm Springs and Tahoe and rounds of golf at exclusive clubs up and down the peninsula.

The fun and games of the golf tournament isn't the only thing going on with the men's soccer program, however. The Broncos took on UC Santa Barbara on April 20 in a spring matchup but didn't come out with the result they were looking for.

"It was not a great performance by us," said Rast. "We got off to a slow start and got behind in the game. We ended up getting close before running out of gas at the end. We created enough opportunities to get a result but we weren't steady enough all the way through the game."

Santa Clara also hosted its alumni game on April 28 that featured players from the Final Four squads of 1998 and 1999.

"Those guys are pretty good and it must be a good sign for our young guys because it was pretty one-sided by the end of the match," said Rast with a smile. "It was good-spirited and great for our guys to interact with them. I love that we have alumni to interact with our young players and keep the stories going."

As for the rest of the spring, Santa Clara has two more matches and is looking to make strides as a team. The first game is Sun., May 5 at 11 a.m. vs. UC Davis and the final game of the spring will be Fri., May 24 vs. Stanford at 4 p.m. Both games will be at Buck Shaw Stadium.

"UC Davis is a good program that plays in a good conference," said Rast. "They tend to be very athletic and very tough to play. They're capable of winning big games so that will be good for us. We also play Stanford and will be able to measure ourselves against a program that is trying to reestablish itself. We had a great game with them this fall and we look forward to having another one in a couple of weeks."