COLLEGE GROVE, Tenn. (UCFKnights.com) – Near the end of Wednesday's third and final round of the NCAA College Grove Regional, it was apparent the UCF men's golf team was headed back to the NCAA Championship round for the first time since 2013. But that wasn't good enough for the Knights.



Some guts and timely advice from head coach Bryce Wallor led the Knights to their first NCAA Regional title since 2009 and just the second in program history.



"With a couple holes to go, it kind of looked like we had a pretty good cushion," Wallor said. "It was pretty neat to stand on the 18th hole. I have every player walk up -- it's a reachable par five -- and I was just able to say to them 'Hey look, we're we're in a really good position, so you can relax.' And I kind of said 'There's an outside chance we could win the tournament if we're aggressive.'"



All four scoring members of the Knights' lineup took Wallor's words to heart. Junior Manuel Elvira , junior Juuso Kahlos and sophomore Kyler Tate each carded birdies. Senior Ryan Stovash knocked a six-iron onto the green on his second shot, then buried a 15-foot curling putt to tally an eagle. Those five strokes under par on the final hole were enough to win the tournament.



"One after another, they just went right at the stick and we did a great job on the last hole," Wallor added.



The performance on No. 18 allowed UCF to overtake No. 2-ranked Vanderbilt, No. 14 Clemson and No. 39 Kennesaw State. Those three teams finished tied for second at 1-over for the tournament, while UCF finished 1-under.

Stovash didn't turn in the only eagle of the day for UCF. Elvira, who finished tied for third on the individual leaderboard, carded a 3 on the Par 5 seventh hole. He finished at even par for the day and was 5-under for the tournament.



Tate was 4-under for the tournament and finished in fifth place. Kahlos finished tied for 48th at 10-over par. But he had the best round of the day for the Knights at 2-under on Wednesday. Stovash rebounded from a first-round 83 (+11) and was even par the next two days. He finished tied for 52nd. Freshman Bobby Bai , who finished tied for 39th, had a hand in the regional championship as well. While his score on Wednesday didn't count, his first-round score of 70 (-2) was a key to getting the Knights started on the right foot and he followed it with a solid score of 75 in the second round.



"The thing I'm most proud of is for the guys who played bad early, they never had their head down," Wallor said. "The guys who played well early, they sparked our team. You saw Ryan (Stovash) really struggle the first day and Kyler (Tate) and Bobby (Bai) and Manny (Elvira) just killed it. Juuso's (Kahlos), kind of always our rock. He doesn't always throw up a super low number, but man you can count on him to count a score every time he plays. The kid just played an outstanding round of golf for the team today."



Wallor called the victory a team effort.



"This was a great experience," Wallor said. "I'm really proud of these guys. They made a big effort to be more on their golf and do a good job in school this semester. They've turned out to be one hell of a team."



The Knights will now advance to the NCAA Championships, set for May 26-31 at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove, Ill. It will be the seventh overall berth for the Knights in the NCAA Division I Men's Golf Championship round.