DADE CITY, Fla. (February 9, 2021) – The Loyola University Chicago men's golf team closed out its two-day stay at the Earl Yestingsmeier Match Play in Dade City, Fla. today, dropping a 4.0-2.0 decision to Drake in the event's final round.
 
The Ramblers finished fifth in the final team standings with 0.5 points, collected during Monday's 3.0-3.0 stalemate with city-rival DePaul.  UConn finished atop the team leaderboard with 3.0 points to claim the event title.
 
"It's hard to be too upset with the week when you haven't competed for 11 months," Loyola head men's golf coach Erik Hoops commented.  "We were just happy to get back out there.  We showed some really good signs of golf this week, but not quite good enough to pull out our matches.  A couple things change in our one-up or one-down matches, and we have a really different outlook about things.  We want to win every week, but when the weather in Chicago is frigid like it is this week, it's great to be practicing, playing, and getting a head start on the spring season.  Now we have some things to build on in our indoor practices over the next month."
 
Senior Justin LaFrance and sophomore Timmy Crawford each notched victories for the Maroon & Gold today at the Lake Jovita South Golf Course.  LaFrance recorded a three-and-two win, while Crawford prevailed, three-and-one.
 
Redshirt senior Nick Welden (3&2), seniors Devin Johnson (6&5) and Ryan Magee (one-up), and sophomore Zach Walsh (4&2) fell in their head-to-head matchups.
 
Loyola is back in action in just over a month, March 15-16, at the Bash at the Beach in North Myrtle Beach, S.C.