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MIRAMAR, Fla. - With most of its golfers playing in their first-ever official match play competition, the UT Arlington men's golf team acquitted itself well but dropped a narrow 3-2 decision to a more experienced Georgia Southern side Wednesday in the semifinals of the Sun Belt Conference Championships at Raven Golf Club.

The Eagles, which advanced to the final of last year's league championships, showed their experience with steady play and very few mistakes to win at the nos. 1, 4 and 5 positions to claim the victory. Fourth-seeded GS advanced to face top-seeded Coastal Carolina in the championship match.

"The guys really fought for it today," said UTA director of golf Stuart Deane. "We were down in every match at the turn. Paul (Gonzalez) went from 3-down to a 2&1 win. Nick (Thornton) won 3 & 2. Georgia Southern just got on top quick. In match play, if you get two, three or four up you can almost wait it out by just making par on every hole. They came out quick and that's what you need to do in match play."

As the team's No. 5 seed, senior Jake Greenspoon was the first golfer off the tee against Georgia Southern senior Archer Price. The Houston native dropped the first two holes before bouncing back with a win on No. 3 to get back to 1-down. He dropped nos. 7 and 9 to go down by 3 holes at the turn. After dropping No. 13, Price clinched the match on the 14th hole to win 5&4.

UTA junior Tanner Gore (EL Paso, Texas) got down early to GS senior Jake Story after dropping five of the first six holes. He got two back on holes 11 and 15 but Storey clinched the match on No. 16 to win 3&2.

After making the turn down just one, Thornton, a native of Boerne, Texas, won five of six holes from nos. 11-16 to clinch his match over freshman Jacob Bayer 4&2.

Freshman Gonzalez (Waxahachie, Texas) went three down after the first seven holes. He then went on a streak to win four straight between holes 9-12 to go 2-up. He dropped No. 16 but clinched the match 2&1 with a victory on No. 17 - after the team's fortune had been decided.

Georgia State junior Steven Fisk, ranked 21st nationally according to Golfstat, clinched the match for the Eagles with a 5&4 decision over UTA senior Aaron Guanlao (Haslet, Texas). Guanlao went 1-up early after winning the second hole but dropped three straight to go 2-down after five. After dropping to 3-down after eight holes, he won the difficult ninth hole to make the turn down two. Fisk won holes 10, 11 and 14 to claim a 5&4 victory to clinch the team decision.

"I think, all-in-all, the trip has been good," said Deane. "The expectation was to get to match play. If we had fallen short of that, it would have been extremely disappointing. The year was nice with two wins. The week has been solid. This morning, we probably really didn't know what to expect. A couple of guys had never played match play. Probably, next year we should have our little match play to get used to the way to approach such a competition."

Sun Belt Conference Championships - Match Play Semifinal
Georgia State 3, UT Arlington 2

5. Archer Price (GS) def. Jake Greenspoon (UTA), 5 & 4
4. Jake Storey (GS) def. Tanner Gore (UTA), 3 & 2
3. Nick Thornton (UTA) def. Jacob Bayer (GS), 3 & 2
2. Paul Gonzalez (UTA) def. Luukas Alakulppi (GS), 2 & 1
1. Steven Fisk (GS) def. Aaron Guanlao (UTA), 5 & 4

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