LA VERNE, Calif. — Aaron DiGiamarino, Austin Matzaganain and Alec Spencer of the La Verne men's golf team have been named to the 2017 First Team All-SCIAC as voted by the conference's head coaches.

The trio led the Leopards to within a whisker of the conference championship as the team built an 8-stroke lead heading into the championship tournament but fell just short to a red-hot Claremont-Mudd-Scripps team.

Spencer punctuates his career with yet another All-SCIAC award and will graduate with a total of five conference awards. He was named the Ken Sherman Freshman of the Year in 2014 as well as First Team All-SCIAC, was tabbed First Team again in 2015 and made the Second Team last year. The San Diego native averaged 74.1 strokes per SCIAC round and paced the Leopards with a second place finish at the championshps.

DiGiamarino, in his second year with the Leopards, became a staple at the top of the lineup. The La Verne native won SCIAC No. 1 with a total score of 3-under 141 and finished fourth overall at SCIAC No. 2. He beat out Spencer by one stroke to finish the season as La Verne's low scorer with 518. He averaged 74 strokes per SCIAC round.

Matzaganian, a senior, was La Verne's most consistent golfer in SCIAC play. He didn't shoot any higher than 76 in any of seven SCIAC rounds and averaged 74.3 strokes per round. He finished 10th at SCIAC No. 1, sixth at SCIAC No. 2 and 13th at the championships.

Thanks largely to the three players, the Leopards returned to championship contention after just one rebuilding season. Spencer and Matzaganian graduate but DiGiamarino will return to anchor the lineup in 2018 with six others, none of whom will be a senior until 2019.