Defending NCAA Champion Oregon, Illinois to meet in East Lake Cup final

ATLANTA, GA (November 1, 2016) -- During Monday's stroke-play qualifying at East Lake Golf Club Oregon finished 13-strokes behind top-seed Vanderbilt. However for Oregon the beauty of golf shined through on Tuesday as the Ducks took down top-seed Vanderbilt to advance to the championship match of the East Lake Cup where they will face last years champion and two- seed Illinois.

"This is so valuable for our team to figure out what they are made of and give them this experience and hopefully come early June or late May we will get this experience again and we will better for it. So this is really huge for us," Duck head man Casey Martin said.

Oregon, the defending national champions, defeated No. 3 Vanderbilt 3-2. The key to advancing for Oregon was claiming victories in the first three matches as Edwin Yi (2&1), Ryan Gronlund (2 up) and Wyndham Clark (2 up) picked up points.

"I just built on past experience and I have been in a lot match play situations and down the stretch you have to keep your routine," Wyndham Clark said. "I was proud of myself because I found the fairway on my last two holes and that is ultimately what got it done."

Illinois, the two-seed this week, and top-ranked team nationally defeated three-seed and No. 23 Texas in the semifinals by a final tally of 3-2. The sides split the first four matches and things weren't decided until Illinois' Dylan Meyer handled Taylor Funk of Texas 2&1.

Meyer, who won the Western Amateur in August, never trailed in the match and took the lead for good with a 9th hole win.

When asked about the keys to his decisive victory Meyer told Golf Channel, "Staying consistent, sticking with the game plan and staying consistent throughout the round."

Illinois also got semifinal victories from Michael Feagles and Edoardo Lipparelli (2&1). Feagles had maybe the most impressive victory of the day as he defeated the medalist winner from a day ago, Scottie Scheffler 3&1 in the lead match.

"I think all the coaches agree that you want to win this thing, you want to win everything that you play in," said Illinois head coach Mike Small. "But we also want to eternally work on some things that will make us better moving forward."

Championship Match Draw

Match 1: Nick Hardy (Ill) vs. Edwin Yi (Oregon)
Match 2: Michael Feagles (Ill) vs. Ryan Gronlund (Oregon)
Match 3: Edoardo Lipparelli (Ill) vs. Nigel Lett (Oregon)
Match 4: Dylan Meyer (Ill) vs. Wyndham Clark (Oregon)
Match 5: Bryan Baumgarten (Ill) vs. Sulman Raza (Oregon)

Wednesday will also include the consolation match between Vanderbilt and Texas.