The Liberty University Men’s Golf team’s strong showing to close out stroke play on Wednesday rolled right into match play on Thursday where the Flames picked up two victories to claim the 2026 CUSA Men’s Golf Championship title.
Liberty rolled to a dominating 4-1 victory over New Mexico State during the morning semifinal match before securing the title with a 3.5-1.5 victory over UTEP in the afternoon championship session.
With the victory, Liberty has now won two of the last three CUSA Men’s Golf Championship titles and records its ninth NCAA Division I conference championship title in program history.
The Flames also secured CUSA’s automatic bid to the NCAA Regional. As a team, Liberty has advanced to NCAA Regional play nine out of the last 10 seasons, 13 out of last 15 years and 15 total times in program history.
The Flames will learn their NCAA Regional selection on Wednesday, May 6 when the NCAA reveals the regional field on a special broadcast on the Golf Channel at 2 p.m. ET.
NCAA Regional play will take place May 18-20 at six regional sites. Three regional sites will have 13 teams and 10 individuals and three will have 14 teams and five individuals.
During the morning match against No. 2 seed New Mexico State, No. 3 seed Liberty won its four matches in convincing fashion.
Senior Ike Joy put the first point on the board with a 5&4 win over Max Chan, followed by a 4&3 win by freshman Silas Haarer over Mateo Payan.
When sophomore Michael Lugiano wrapped up his 3&2 win over Javier Delgadillo, senior Joy Ryan was 3 up with three holes to play.
During the afternoon session, No. 1 seed UTEP, who dominated stroke play with a 31-under par 833 (279-271-283) at the Texarkana Country Club (par 72, 6,969 yards), jumped out to an early lead over No. 3 seed Liberty.
The two teams have become quite familiar with each other in match play, having met the last two championship events. Liberty defeated UTEP to capture the title in 2024, while the Miners defeated the Flames during the semifinal round in 2025.
The championship match saw a momentum shift during the turn with the Flames leading in three matches and tied in two more following nine holes of play.
Lugiano put the first point on the board for the Flames in the championship match with a convincing 5&4 win over Dylan Teeter on No. 14 (par 4, 441 yards).
Just moments later, Haarer dropped in a lengthy birdie putt on No. 16 (par 5, 560 yards) to secure a 4&2 win over Marc Keller.
On the drivable but uphill No. 17 hole (par 4, 291 yards), Joy was just short of the green off the tee, but he had a nice chip to within 10 feet to set the stage for the victory.
After his playing partner Alexandre Godin missed a lengthy birdie try from the lower part of the green, Joy sank his third birdie in a row and sixth of the match to claim the title for the Flames with a 2&1 victory.
When the match ended UTEP’s Braden Smith was 1 up on Luke Libbey on the 18th hole, while Ryan’s match with UTEP’s Pat Foley was all square with three holes to play.
Read more about Liberty Golf at LibertyFlames.com