Prior to his team’s NCAA Regional tournament in Austin, Texas, Michigan coach Andrew Sapp told his team he was confident it could win a national championship. At the time, it seemed like wishful thinking.

Michigan had only reached a regional tournament once in Sapp’s six-year tenure prior to this season — let alone the NCAA Finals — which the Wolverines hadn't seen since 1968.

So after 40 years with only one appearance, Sapp's confidence set a lofty goal for his team.

They did earn a regional bid on May 4, but that’s still a far cry from a national championship — especially for a team that finished eighth in its postseason conference tournament. Then, they snuck into the finals with a clutch final round performance in the regional tournament on May 16, grabbing the fifth and final spot by only three strokes.

They certainly turned some heads with their Finals berth. But against 30 of the best teams in the nation, it had to finish in the top eight to reach the match play portion of the tournament and have a shot at a title. It was a tall order for a team whose last top-8 finish in the Finals was in 1952.

No. 39 Michigan answered the bell once again, though — battling for third throughout all three rounds and finishing sixth at the Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio, better than 19 teams ranked ahead of it.

The Wolverines were one of the last eight teams standing. Still, a championship meant defeating national powerhouse No. 3 USC in the quarterfinal round.

With the help of sophomore Lion Kim’s 2 & 1 victory over Matthew Giles, the second-ranked player in the country, the Wolverines overcame the Trojans and advanced to the Final Four.

So much for wishful thinking.

“Our players have played their best golf when the competition is strongest,” Sapp said. “It’s what every player thrives for and this is the scene that everyone wants to make it to.”

Hours after Michigan’s thrilling win over USC, it fell short against No. 15 Texas Tech of a match play playoff finals berth. Senior-captain Bill Rankin — a crucial piece to Michigan’s resurgence onto the national golf stage — lost his match on the final hole, which officially eliminated Michigan.

The dream season came to an end, yet it was much later than anyone would have guessed. For Sapp, what had looked like wishful thinking was simply an honest diagnosis of his team’s prospects.

His team could have won a national championship. His team was built and ready for a postseason run after his program quietly and steadily progressed during the first six years as coach.

“When everyone has asked us in the past four years (if we are surprised by the improvement), we always said ‘no’ because we knew we could play better,” Rankin said. “(This year) we had five guys that went out and wanted to beat each other so badly in practice. We had such a commitment to improve.”

Sapp's team also had a perfect blend of experienced veterans like Rankin and senior co-captain Nick Pumford as well as an infusion of young talent like Kim, sophomore Alexander Sitompul and freshman Matt Thompson.

All five players were major parts of Michigan’s historic season and all five contributed to its NCAA Finals run, taking their games to another level on the sport's biggest stage.

“The guys just started playing together,” Sapp said. “We never had a problem with having two or three guys play well in a tournament at a time, but this week we had four or five guys playing well at a time. Everybody helped.

"This was a true team effort.”

Kim nailed shot after shot to clinch victories for the Wolverines, sealing their Finals berth on the last hole of the regional tournament and securing their win over USC in a match against the second best collegiate player in the nation.

Sitompul finished sixth in the Finals, highlighted by a phenomenal second round, two-under, 69. And Thompson was a model of consistency the entire year, going undefeated in five match play attempts.

It was the trio of underclassmen that anchored Michigan to the Final Four. And it's the same trio that will try to sneak its way into the Final Four again next season.

“It’s great for recruiting,” Sapp said. “It’s great for the confidence level of returning players. It’s great from a coaching standpoint. We were able to coach at the highest level in the biggest championship. So the experience itself is going to be beneficial for all of us.”