The Arkansas Razorbacks were no match for Notre Dame in the 54-hole stroke-play portion of the Jackson T. Stephens Cup, which came to an end Tuesday at the Alotian Club in Roland.
The Fighting Irish, with three players -- Palmer Jackson, Taichi Kho and Davis Chatfield -- all finishing under par, came into the day with a 13-shot lead over Arizona and ended up winning over the Razorbacks by 20 shots.
But Arkansas lives to fight today, earning a shot at No 1 seed Notre Dame in match play by jumping over Alabama and Arizona to claim the No. 2 seed.
Match play is right where the Razorbacks like to be.
"I can say stroke play is a whole different world from match play," said Arkansas' Mateo Fernandez De Oliveira, the men's medalist after winning a three-hole playoff over Jackson on Tuesday. "I know we're good match-play players and we'll be more than ready for tomorrow."
The Razorbacks were fourth coming into Tuesday's 18-hole round, and their players were paired with Florida State and San Diego State, the teams that were fifth and sixth in the standings.
"We were in fourth place, and we had to play where we were paired," Arkansas Coach Brad McMakin said. "We had to go out and play a good round. It didn't matter. We were watching the leaderboard quite a bit today. It was going back-and-forth, back-and-forth. We caught a good stretch there, a six-hole stretch where we made a bunch of birdies."
De Oliveira started the day tied for second with Jackson, two shots behind Kho, the 36-hole leader
Kho increased his lead to four shots and made the turn at 8 under, but the back nine proved to be his undoing.
Bogeys on 12, 15 and 16 dropped Kho to 5 under, while Jackson played the back nine in 1 under.
De Oliveira, looking for his first tournament win at Arkansas, made birdies at Nos. 4 and 5 -- his 13th and 14th holes on the day -- to reach 6 under and he parred out after missing birdie chances on his final two holes.
"I saw I was four back," de Oliveira said. "On 8, they told me I was tied for the lead."
De Oliveira had chances to win outright with birdie putts on Nos. 8 and 9, but both slid past the hole.
The playoff started at No. 10, with de Oliveira and Jackson posting consecutive pars before they moved to the tricky par-3 16th.
Jackson hit his tee shot in the sand above the sloping green, and de Oliveira was in the sand to the left front of the green.
Jackson hit his sand shot to within 10 feet below the hole, while de Oliveira was about 12 feet away above the hole.
"He got in a bad spot," McMakin said. "But he made that putt for birdie earlier in the day.
"He kind of knew the break. Still got to make a 10-foot down-the-hill slider, and he knocked it right in the middle."
De Oliveira said he was in a difficult spot, but he knew what he had to do.
"All the putts here, if you're not on the right side, they are going to be hard," he said. "That putt was downhill right to left. I've been putting good all week.
"I hit a good putt there, and it went in."
McMakin said that Arkansas, which won a SEC match play event last week, faces a stern test against a Notre Dame team that simply dominated the 54-hole stroke-play portion of the event.
"They've played extremely well here," he said. "It's going to be tough to beat them. Match play, anything can happen. We hope we can go out and give them a good match."