After a sluggish start in the opening day of play, the Matadors validated their coach’s word and played better on day two, finishing fourth at the Anteater Invitational at the Mesa Verde Country Club.

Senior Kyle Sauer continued his excellent play as he just missed taking first title, finishing two strokes behind the leader to finish second.  Sauer stroked a 71 to finish one under-par on the day for a three-round total of 212 strokes, behind champion junior Pete Fernandez’s 210 three-round total.

Following Monday’s fifth place performance, head coach Jim Bracken was disappointed but was confident his team would pick up their play on the second day.

“The sun will come up tomorrow and we’ll try to move up the leaderboard,” Bracken said in an interview with Go Matadors.  His team improved by eight strokes on Tuesday, finishing with a score of 292 strokes in the final round for a three round total of 879 strokes.

The total would be good for a fourth place finish in the seven team field, completing the Invitational ten strokes behind the champion Long Beach State 49ers, who finished with a total of 869 strokes.

Junior Michael O’Connor and senior Oscar Sachs, who began the day tied for 17th, finished the tournament in the top 20 shooting three over-par and four over-par for the day, respectively.  O’Connor finished tied for 17th again with a three-day total of 222 strokes, while Sachs finished tied for 20th with a total of 223 strokes.

The Matadors will travel to Utah for their next tournament on Feb. 10-11, as they participate in the Pat Hicks Thunderbird Invitational, hosted by the Southern Utah Thunderbirds.