ETSU finishes just off the lead for second straight year

JONESBOROUGH, Tenn. (Oct. 14, 2007) - In collegiate golf, teams are comprised off five players with the best four scores counting toward team standings. In other words, the fifth score each day usually does not matter to a team's success.

That was not the case Sunday in the final round of the Bank of Tennessee Intercollegiate at the Ridges.

With tournament tiebreaker rules that called for a squad's fifth score to determine a team championship in case of a tie, Virginia Tech posted no score over a 73 and that was enough to break the Hokies' deadlock with North Carolina at the top of the leaderboard. Meanwhile, Tennessee's Chris Paisley - powered by a record setting second round of 8-under 64 Saturday - captured the individual championship at 10-under 206 by two strokes over Maryland's Chris Gold and Kent State's John Hahn.

"This is a great tournament and a great win for us," said Virginia Tech head coach Jay Hardwick, whose team finished at 12-under 852 along with UNC. "We've been coming here since 2001 and Coach (Warren) was really great to give us a chance to be a part of this thing back in 2001 when we weren't really that good. To win like this is special for our guys."

Ironically, the Hokies won despite not having to use a score from British Amateur champion Drew Weaver on Sunday. Weaver and teammate Aaron Eckstein both posted 73s on the day, while UNC's Reed Darsie posted the Tar Heels high score at 74.

While the Hokies celebrated their first ever win in the BOT Intercollegiate, the host ETSU Buccaneers are still waiting on their first team championship in their own event. Coming up one stroke short to Tennessee a year ago, the Bucs finished third this season and two strokes off the pace.

"We didn't play particularly well at first, but we certainly played our way back into it at the end," said ETSU head coach Fred Warren. "Our guys did a lot of good things, but we've got to get better."

 The Bucs ended the day 1-over for the round and 10-under for the tournament, and were left to realize that a 2-under 286 would have been enough to bring home the title. ETSU's top individual performer, senior Gareth Shaw (Lisburn, Northern Ireland), finished sixth at 6-under for the tournament.

"That's not hard to do. We do it week in and week out," said Shaw, when asked about posting a 2-under score. "It's been frustrating the last two years and I won't have another chance at it, but hopefully the boys will find a way to get it done in the future."

Along with Shaw, the Bucs got a strong effort from freshman Rhys Enoch (Cornwall, England), who finished tied for seventh at 5-under for the tournament and now has two Top 10 finishes in his first three collegiate tournaments.

The Bucs will be back in action in their final event of the fall season Oct. 21 at the Isleworth Collegiate Invitational in Orlando, Fla. Fans can keep up with the Bucs by visiting ETSUBucs.com.