North Carolina made the final eight in the NCAA Championship with a tie for third place in stroke play at La Costa North in Carlsbad, California.
The Tar Heels shot 4-under-par 284 Monday to tie Virginia at 11-over 1163, 17 strokes behind team leader llinois.
Seeded No. 4 for match play, UNC will play No. 5 Florida State in Tuesday morning’s quarterfinals. If the Tar Heels win, they will play the Illinois-Georgia Tech winner in the afternoon. The championship match is scheduled for Wednesday.
The Tar Heels had five players finish in the top 50, led by Peter Fountain at 290 in a tie for 19th.
Vanderbilt, Auburn and Ohio State are the other three teams in match play.
Hiroshi Tai of Georgia Tech was the medalist at 3-under 285 for 72 holes despite making a triple-bogey Monday on his 17th hole, the par-3 No. 8.
Jackson Koivun of Auburn, one of six players to finish 2-under, hit the flagstick with his approach — a winning shot if it went in — at his final hole, but his ball caromed into a bunker. He saved par after a blast that rolled just past the cup.
Vanderbilt’s Gordon Sargent lipped out a short birdie putt on his last hole that would have forced a playoff.
Nick Mathews of N.C. State, playing as an individual, was briefly within a few strokes of the stroke-play lead early in the second nine. Mathews shot 71 Monday to finish in a tie for 15th at a 1-over 289.
The Mebane native made eagle on the par-5 No. 2 hole — his 11th hole — to move to even-par for the tournament. But he made bogey on his next two holes to fall from contention and finished at 2-over on a crowded leaderboard.
