UNLV crept up the leaderboard during the second round of the NCAA men’s golf championship Saturday, but the Rebels have a big hill to climb if they want to avoid Sunday being their final round of the season.
Sophomore Zach Little and senior Caden Fioroni led the charge for the Rebels, who moved up two places to 23rd in the 30-team field to sit at 23 over at La Costa Resort in Carlsbad, California. Only the top 15 teams will play on after Sunday, and the Rebels are 11 shots behind Vanderbilt, Wake Forest and Texas A&M, who are tied for 15th at 12 over.
No. 5 Arizona State leads the way at 13 under, with the eight highest-ranked teams in the field holding down the top eight spots on the leaderboard.
Little and Fioroni, who were named to the Golf Coaches Association of America All-West Region team earlier in the day, played some solid golf Saturday. Little had two birdies and one bogey during a 1-under 71, while Fioroni had five birdies during a 1-over 73 despite suffering a costly triple bogey on the 15th hole.
Junior Wyatt Plattner (76), senior Trevor Lewis (80) and junior Brett Sawaia (83) struggled Saturday.
Arizona State sophomore Connor Williams and Ole Miss junior Michael La Sasso lead at 9 under and put some distance between themselves and the rest of the field. The individual champion will be crowned Monday, while the top eight teams move on after that to two days of match play to decide the national champion.
Greg Robertson covers golf for the Review-Journal. Reach him at [email protected].
