With the back nine to play on championship Sunday at the Ivy League Match Play, the Harvard men’s golf team was keeping pace with Yale, with almost every individual matchup too close to call. In a battle that came down to the 18th pin, a few breaks went in favor of the Bulldogs, who pulled out the 4-3 victory.

“I liked very much where we were at around ten holes,” Crimson coach Kevin Rhoads said. “Had [senior] Kevin [McCarthy’s] match gone the other way, [sophomore] Rohan [Ramnath’s] opponent chipped in on the last hole to win one up, and [freshman] Kendrick [Vinar’s] match could’ve gone the other way…. There were some tight matches that could’ve gone either way.”

By defeating Brown, 4-3, Princeton, 6-1, and second-seeded Harvard, 4-3, for the title, Yale improved upon its fourth place finish at last year’s Ivy League Match Play.

Starting from the opposite side of the playoff bracket that included each of the Ancient Eight Ivy League teams, Crimson began the weekend with a tight 4-3 win over Cornell in the first round and a 5-2 victory over Columbia.

The second-place finish concludes an up and down fall season for Harvard that began with a second-place showing at the Doc Gimmler. Facing tougher competition, the team came in 15th out of 16 teams at the Windon Memorial before bouncing back to tie for fourth at the Temple Invitational last weekend.

Despite this weekend’s end result, the Crimson showed promise and improvement that it hopes to carry into the spring season.

“Obviously we came up a little short, and we’re disappointed because we came here to win,” Vinar said. “But I also think we can take away a lot of positives from the week and are motivated extra to work harder during the offseason.”

YALE 4, HARVARD 3

Harvard found itself in a hole early on in its second match of the morning, falling behind, 2-0, in total games against the Bulldogs.

With the match slipping away, the Crimson looked to captain Theo Lederhausen to spark a comeback. Though Lederhausen putted his way to a one-up victory over his Yale opponent, the rest of the team came short of the win. Freshman Daniel De La Garza lost 4&3, Ramnath fell after his opponent chipped in on the 18th and Vinar lost 2&1.

Up three holes with eight to play, McCarthy tweaked his wrist shooting out of the rough on the 11th hole and the injury affected his play. Though he battled through the final holes, McCarthy was unable to maintain the lead, in what Rhoads described as “what turned out to be the pivotal match.”

Along with Lederhausen, freshman Robert Deng and junior Akash Mirchandani pulled out two-hole victories to cut the final deficit to one.

HARVARD 4, COLUMBIA 2

For its semifinal match, Harvard faced a Columbia team that had the 33rd lowest scoring average in the NCAA coming into this weekend’s tournament.

But strong play by freshman Daniel De La Garza and Ramnath, who both birdied a difficult fifth hole, helped put the Crimson up, 2-1, before tournament officials suspended play late Saturday evening due to darkness.

With the four remaining matches having four holes to go, play resumed the next morning at dawn. Keyed by quality play all-around, Harvard kept up the momentum into Sunday, picking up the four matches necessary to clinch the win. Deng won his match 3&2, while junior Akash Mirchandani came out on top as well.

HARVARD 4, CORNELL 3

Although McCarthy’s eagle on the third hole at the Trump National Golf Course and birdie on the par three sixth jump-started the Crimson to an early lead Saturday morning, all he and the rest of his teammates could do was watch as Vinar lined up a six-foot putt on the 18th green.

With the match tied, 3-3, Vinar’s opponent converted a tricky up-and-down opportunity from a greenside bunker to put the pressure on Vinar, who had to two putt from 45 feet away to seal the victory for Harvard.

“I was on the far edge of the green, and I lagged [my first putt] up there to about five or six feet—I misread it,” Vinar said. “Everyone was gathered around the green and [my opponent] buried his 20-foot putt for par…. But I couldn’t worry about what my opponent was going to do…. I went through my routine and knocked it in for the win.”

“It was a really tight match,” Muphy said. “Most of the players were under par for their whole [round], even though we were playing match play.”