Charlottesville, VA (cvillerightnow.com): It took them until the last contest of the season, but the Virginia Cavaliers lost their first match play contest in 2024-25, going down to the Oklahoma State Cowboys in the NCAA national championship match in Carlsbad, California yesterday evening.

“We are ACC Champions and National Runner-Up, so that’s a heck of a year, but a little bit short of our goal,” UVA coach Bowen Sargent said. “Most of our guys will be back and I’m looking forward to next year.”

Virginia kept the battle as close as they could against the now-12-time NCAA champions. With three of the four matches in which they fell, they stayed either within one stroke of their opponent, or the contest was tied going into the 15th hole.  It is, undeniably, a gut-wrenching way to lose a golf game.

“I thought we played very well from what I saw,” Sargent said. “They made more putts than we did, and that’s usually what it comes down to in match play. We played very solid golf from what I saw, but they just happened to play a little bit better. It’s a game of inches at this point and they came out on top.”

Despite falling at the last hurdle however, this is the most successful season in program history for Bowen Sargent and the Virginia Men’s Golf Team, defeating the last two national champions (Florida and Auburn), on the way to their first ever championship match in the NCAA Championship Round.