Bellinghamgolfer.com

WWU was beaten 4-1-0 by Lynn FL in yesterday’s semi-final of the NCAA Div II Championship at Hershey Country Club in Hershey, Penn. bringing to an end a memorable season in which the team recorded its sixth consecutive Great Northwest Athletic Conference Championship win and three more victories besides.
After surprising the No. 1 seed Florida Southern in the morning, finishing the match tied at 2-2-1 but recording a better aggregate team score (375-380), the No. 8 seed Vikings, which had climbed from 12th to T7 on Wednesday to qualify for medal/matchplay, faced the No. 4 seed as the only team not from Florida in the final four.
Sadly, only Evan Needham could eke out a win in the high-scoring encounter in which Western’s five team members averaged 78.0. Still, it was the furthest the Vikings had ever progressed in the National Championship in 15 years as an NCAA member, and with Jake Webb shooting a career and tournament-best 6-under par 65 on Wednesday and finishing joint runner-up on the individual leaderboard (Webb lost the two-hole playoff to Florida Southern’s Tim Crouch then beat him by six shots in the quarter-final encounter) it was a memorable tournament for Western.
“It was exciting to knock off the No.1 seed and get into the national semifinals,” said coach Steve Card, who is leaving his coaching position after 20 seasons to concentrate on his new duties as interim director of athletics for the 2013-14 school year. “It’s been a great week, an historic week, for Western men’s golf. Jake finished his college career in style. He not only had an outstanding tournament, but an outstanding season. He led by example.”
Lynn advances to the national final Friday against No.2 seed Barry FL, which defeated No.3 Nova Southeastern FL, 2-2-1 (won by two strokes in aggregate score).
WWU’s tie for third place bettered its previous best NCAA II finish of sixth in 2000. The Vikings lose three seniors from the squad - Jake Webb, Dylan Goodwin, and Evan Needham.

Medalist Play
T2 Webb - 71, 75, 65
T59 Needham - 75, 75, 80
T64 Goodwin - 74, 82, 75
75 Schrader - 72, 85, 75
T87 Strickland - 77, 80, 79

Quarter-Final
WWU 2, Florida Southern 2 (1 draw): Jake Webb  d. Tim Crouch (73-79); Case Gard d. Kyle Schrader (76-79); Dylan Goodwin d. Austin Schultz (73-76); Evan Needham tied with Shane Convery (74-74); Peter Creighton d. Mark Strickland (75-76)

Semi-Final
Lynn 4, WWU 1:  Flip Timmerman d. Jake Webb (76-79); Ernesto Vitienes d. Kyle Schrader (75-77); Daniel Young d. Dylan Goodwin (68-80; Evan Needham d. Roberto Francioni (77-80); Jose Andres Mirando d. Mark Strickland (77-78)