Coming off a solid fall campaign, Villanova teed it up in the Big East Match Play at Bear Lakes Country Club in West Palm Beach, Fla. to open the spring portion of the 2023-2024 season.
I’m a little behind on this as the Big East Match Play wrapped up Feb. 6th, but it’s been a while since Villanova got its spring season started with a Florida trip and the Wildcats will be defending team crowns later this spring in the Golden Horseshoe Intercollegiate in Williamsburg, Va. and in their Wildcat Spring Invitational, which will return to LuLu Country Club in April.
Villanova will take another trip to Florida for its next start when the Wildcats tee it up next month in the Daytona Beach Intercollegiate at LPGA International.
The Wildcats went 0-3 at Bear Lakes, but they got to shake the rust off their games with three matches in two days. And with seven players teeing it up in each match, head coach Jim Wilkes got a chance to evaluate the players who will be competing to be Villanova’s top five in tournaments later in the spring.
Villanova’s top two players, Peter Weaver, a senior from Fontenac, Mo., and Ryan Pamer, a sophomore from Hudson, Ohio, both played well.
Weaver finished in a tie for fifth place individually and helped Villanova end up in a tie for fifth in the team standings in last spring’s Big East Championship at Riverton Pointe Golf & Country Club in Hardeeville, S.C.
Weaver had a win and a tie and Pamer had a pair of match-play victories as Villanova, seeded sixth, fell, 5-2, to third-seeded Xavier and 4.5-2.5, to seventh-seeded DePaul on the first day of play Feb. 5th. Both fell in matches that reached the 17th hole in a 4-3 loss to eighth-seeded St. John’s in the seventh-place match Feb. 6th.
I’ll recap all those matches, but the title went to fifth-seeded Connecticut, which claimed a 4.5-2.5 victory over second-seeded Seton Hall in the Big East Match Play final Feb. 6th, the third time the Huskies have won the title since rejoining the conference.
It was good to see Eli Shah in the Seton Hall lineup. The freshman had a really nice scholastic career at Penncrest, earning a trip to the PIAA Class AAA Championship in each of his last two seasons.
Shah fell, 4 and 2, to UConn’s Ray Dennehy, a junior from Princeton, Mass., in the championship match, but he gained some valuable experience on the trip, losing twice and winning a match.
Connecticut’s other full points against the Hall came from Alex Heard, a freshman from Boca Raton, Fla. who claimed a 3 and 2 victory over Joshua Lee, a junior from Lantana, Texas, Jimmy Paradise, a senior from Tampa, Fla. who earned a 3 and 2 decision over David Lally, a sophomore from Ireland, and Tommy Dallahan, a senior from Simsbury, Conn. who captured a 2 and 1 victory over George Fricker, a junior from England.
The wins capped 3-0 runs through the Big East Match Play for Paradise and Heard and Dallahan ended up with a 2-0-1 mark.
Bradley Sawka, a freshman from Ellington, Conn., salvaged a half-point for the Huskies as he battled Patrick Kahanek, a junior from San Antonio, Texas, to a draw.
Seton Hall got full points from Isaiah Williams, a freshman from Flemington, N.J. who edged Eric Boulger, a junior from Walpole, Mass., 1-up, and Wenliang Xie, a graduate student from China who claimed a 4 and 2 decision over Connor Goode, a sophomore from Glastonbury, Conn.
Williams’ win over Boulger capped a 3-0 run for him through two days of match play.
UConn reached the final a day earlier when it took down top-seeded Creighton, 5-2, in the semifinals.
Three of the Huskies’ full points came in matches that reached the 18th hole as Boulger edged the Blue Jays’ Cole Davis, a junior from Marshalltown, Iowa, Heard topped Jake Boor, a junior home boy from Omaha, Neb., 2-up, and Paradise pulled out a 1-up win over Jackson Thompson, a sophomore from Dakota Dunes, S.D.
Goode accounted for UConn’s other full point with a 3 and 2 victory over Shaun Campbell, a senior from New Zealand.
Two other matches ended in draws as Dennehy deadlocked with Grant Feldman, a senior from Austin, Texas, and Dallahan tied with Charlie Zielinski, a senior and another home boy from Omaha.
Creighton’s lone full point came from Owen Price, a freshman from Tacoma, Wash. who edged Sawka, 1-up.
Seton Hall reached the final with a 5.5-1.5 victory over fifth-seeded Xavier in the semifinals, getting full points from Williams, who defeated A.J. Adams, a freshman from Dallas, Texas, 2 and 1, Lally, who pulled out a 2-up decision over A.J. Wilhelm, a freshman from Mason, Ohio, Kahanek, who edged Jack Korotcoff, a senior from Australia, 1-up, Fricker, who also went the distance before earning a 1-up victory over Justin Gabbard, a junior from Fort Thomas, Ky., and Xie, who captured a 3 and 2 verdict over Mason Witt, a junior from Jamestown, Ohio.
The Pirates’ Lee battled Zach Burton, a sophomore from Hilliard, Ohio, to a draw.
Xavier’s only full point came from Ray Filter, a freshman from Crown Point, Ind. who handed fellow freshman Shah a 3 and 1 setback.
Connecticut began its road to the final with a decisive 6-1 victory over fourth-seeded Butler in an opening-round match with Boulger, Heard, Paradise, Sawka, Dallahan and Goode registering match wins.
Seton Hall opened with a 4.5-2.5 victory seventh-seeded DePaul with Williams, Lally, Shah and Fricker earning full points for the Pirates. Shah’s victory was a 4 and 2 decision over the Blue Demons’ Artemiy Yalovenko, a graduate student from Russia.
Villanova dropped a 5-2 decision to Xavier in the opening round with Weaver and Pamer accounting for the two full points for the Wildcats.
Weaver earned a 2 and 1 verdict over the Musketeers’ Witt and Pamer pulled out a 1-up victory over Gabbard.
Xavier’s five full points included a 3 and 2 decision for Adams over Jackson Lehner, a junior from Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., a 4 and 2 win for Burton over Peter Barros, a freshman from Bethesda, Md., a 3 and 2 victory for Wilhelm over P.J. O’Rourke, a graduate student from Paramus, N.J., an easy 7 and 6 verdict for Korotcoff over Vimal Alokim, a junior from Ypsilanti, Mich., and a 3 and 2 triumph for Filter over Joshua Lavely, a sophomore from Kewadin, Mich.
In a consolation match that concluded the opening day of play Feb. 5th, DePaul handed Villanova a 4.5-2.5 setback.
Pamer earned a full point for the Wildcats with a 3 and 1 victory over Noah Kolar, a graduate student from Grand Rapids, Mich. Weaver battled Ryder Henares, a junior from Orange County, Calif., to a draw.
Villanova’s other full point came from Lehner, who rolled to a 6 and 5 victory over Aarjav Patel, a junior from Las Vegas, Nev.
Alokam and Lavely battled their opponents to the last hole before falling, Alokam suffering a 1-up defeat at the hands of Conor Glennon, a graduate student from Ireland, and Lavely dropping a 2-up decision to Yalovenko.
DePaul’s other two points came from Billy Gneiser, a sophomore from Darien, Ill. who cruised to a 7 and 5 victory over Barros, and Alex Vekich, a freshman from Scottsdale, Ariz. who handed O’Rourke a 4 and 3 setback.
Villanova concluded its stay at Bear Lakes with a 4-3 loss to St. John’s in the seventh-place match.
The Wildcats got full points from Lehner, who claimed a 4 and 2 victory over Thomas Stafford, a junior from Canada, Barros, who cruised to a 5 and 4 decision over Jack Breutsch, a freshman from Center Moriches, N.Y., and Alokam, who was a 5 and 4 winner over Erik Stevens, a graduate student from Annandale, N.J.
Weaver took Thomas Finn, a freshman from Locust Valley, N.Y., to the 17th hole before falling, 2 and 1, and Palmer also made it to 17 before dropping a 3 and 1 decision to Peicheng Chen, a junior from China.
The other full points for the Red Storm came from David Mlynek, a sophomore from the Czech Republic who earned a 2 and 1 victory over O’Rourke and Ryan Rittberger, a graduate student from Greenlawn, N.Y. who captured a 3 and 1 win over Lavely.
In the third-place match, Xavier edged Creighton, 4-3, and Butler claimed a 5-2 victory over DePaul in the fifth-place match.
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