After a 10-stroke comeback on day two, the Wildcat golf team couldn’t muster a rally in day three and fell to a third-place finish at the Lone Star Conference Championships.

“We played pretty solid but didn’t have our best stuff as a team,” sophomore Alex Carpenter said.

Although the Wildcats all finished at the top 25, the highest finisher for ACU was Alex Carpenter in fourth at 3-under-par. The defending national champion, Cyril Bouniol, finished in a tie for 14th at 4-over-par. Tyler Sheppard finished right above Bouniol in a tie for 12th. LSC Freshman of the Year Trey Sullivan played well in his first LSC tournament and ended up in a tie for 14th.

The tournament looked to be going the Wildcats’ way after the Wildcats made a huge comeback during the second round of the tournament. The ‘Cats began the day 12 strokes behind eventual champion Central Oklahoma University but narrowed the margin to only two after an under-par round from Bouniol. The birdies didn’t fall for the Wildcats on the last day though and they couldn’t complete what would have been a historic rally.

With ACU failing to win, the Oklahoma schools continued to dominate the LSC tourney. Since division play began, only two Texas schools have took home the title – Texas A&M Kingsville University in 1999 and ACU in 2010.

The third-place finish is still good enough to move the Wildcats on as they will play in the NCAA South Central Regional tournament next week. Joining the Wildcats will be Central Oklahoma and second-place finisher Cameron University. All three LSC schools are ranked in the top 25 with UCO and ACU ranked in the top 10.

“It was fun to be right there in the hunt going into the last round as a team,” Sheppard said. “It’s disappointing we didn’t pull out the win, but we’re all looking forward to competing at the Regional tournament.”

The NCAA South Central Regional tournament will be May 2-5 in Georgetown, Ky. at the Cherry Blossom Golf Club.

“We’re eager to get after it in Kentucky this week,” Carpenter said.