Tar Heels lose playoff for match play spot at NCAA Championship

North Carolina and Duke were eliminated Monday from the NCAA Men’s Championship.

The Tar Heels tied with three other teams for the final two spots in the eight-team match play format, but lost in a playoff, which had five players from each team play one of the first five holes at Omni La Costa Resort in Carlsbad, California.

Stanford and UCLA advanced in the playoff. UNC and Tennessee each had four pars and a double-bogey. Stanford made three pars, a birdie and a bogey and UCLA made four pars and a bogey. The four teams in the playoff tied at 2-under-par 1150 for 72 holes.

Ethan Evans tied for 10th at 7-under for Duke, which shot 1156. Carson Bertagnole shot 71 Monday to lead UNC at 4-under. Grant Roscich shot 72 and Sihan Sandhu shot 73.

UNC struggled at the bottom of the lineup as Niall Shiels Donegan shot 76 and Andrew Riley’s 78 was not counted.

Auburn, Texas, Vanderbilt, Florida, Oklahoma State and Arizona were the top six finishers. Preston Stout of Oklahoma State was medalist at 14-under, followed by William Jennings of Alabama at 13-under.