The UConn Men’s Golf team came out swinging to open their spring season with a 6-1 win over Creighton and a 4-3 win over Xavier.
The Huskies escaped the cold Connecticut weather and traveled to sunny West Palm Beach, Fla. for their first Big East matchup of the season.
Alongside the Huskies was Xavier, Marquette, Butler, St. Johns, Villanova, Creighton, and DePaul, who also competed.
UConn continued their success at this event as last year, they went 3-0 facing off against Butler, Creighton and Seton Hall.
The Huskies dominated early on to ultimately result in a 6-1 win. In the first match, senior Ray Dennehy won against junior Grant Feldman and this success continued in the following two matches with the Huskies taking the wins.
In the fourth match, UConn senior, Eric Boulger fell to Creighton’s freshman Henry Kuehne but despite this, UConn went on to win the next two matches moving them on to round two against Xaiver who won in the first round 6.5-0.5 against DePaul.
In the second match, UConn’s Dennehy was up first against sophomore Ray Filter. This match resulted in a tie as both golfers followed a similar scorecard across the match. Dennehy had 24 pars in his match placing him in 5th place amongst all players.
In the second matchup, junior Connor Goode faced off against junior Carson Bellish where Bellish took the win. On the 5th hole, Bellish got it in three whereas it took Goode five putts. Despite this, Goode and Bellish went on to be even with the rest of the holes, but Goode fell just short in the end, resulting in a loss for the Huskies.
Sophomore Bradley Sawka turned things around for the Huskies against his opponent freshman Kellen Dean resulting in a two-up win. Sawka had consistent three and four putts while Dean struggled to keep his momentum going resulting in several five and six putts, costing him the win.
Both the veteran Huskies and newcomers had successful wins in their matches. Senior Eric Boulger took the fourth match win against sophomore AJ Wilhelm of the Musketeers, as did freshman Matthew Costello with his win against junior Zach Burton.
In the last match, freshman Caden Blanchette fell to senior Mason Witt but despite this, the combination of strong matches throughout the day led the Huskies to the overall win to keep their winning streak alive.
Xaiver did have strong performances though with freshman Kyle Smith coming in first place with ten birdies and his teammate Kellen Deed right behind him in second place with nine birdies.
Looking at the other teams, Butler had a standout performance as three of their players ranked first amongst tournament stats. Freshman Johnny Creamean came in first with two Eaglesplus and senior Henry Quinn with 27 pars, tied for first place with Creighton freshman Jacob Kutner.
In terms of the other scores, Marquette defeated Butler with a score of 5-2 and Creighton dominated against DePaul with a score of 5-1. St. Johns and Villanova ended in a tie of 3.5-3.5.
Looking ahead, the Huskies will travel to Dorado, Puerto Rico for the Dorado Beach Collegiate which will take place from Feb. 23-25.