Senior Eric Dietrich and sophomore Nabeel Khan led a final-round charge Monday that lifted the UConn golf team to a come-from-behind victory in the Loyola Intercollegiate, held at the Palm Valley Golf Club in Goodyear, Ariz.
Dietrich shot a 6-under 66 and Khan registered a 3-under 69 on Monday, leading the Huskies to an aggregate 14-under 274, the finest team round of the entire tournament. The Huskies, who trailed by eight strokes heading into the final round, finished the round 15 strokes better than Eastern Michigan, which had led the tourney for the first two rounds. UConn's 30-under 282-278-274=834 was seven strokes ahead of Eastern Michigan and 13 better than third-place Elon in the 16-team event.
It was UConn's fourth Top Five finish in six events this year, but its first tournament championship this season. It also marked the seventh tournament title of UConn Coach Dave Pezzino's 10-year UConn coaching tenure.
Dietrich's 9-under 70-71-66=207 was good enough for a fourth-place overall finish, his best finish of this season and the ninth Top 10 finish of his career. It pushed him to 31 career rounds of par or better and the 66 is his 12th sub-70 round. He finished four strokes in back of individual medalist Kyle Rhodes (-13) from Eastern Michigan.