First place not only heralds bragging rights, but it also signals that a team boasts consistency rather than just individual talent.

But with that attention comes the challenge of building on winning performances – and the Bruins struggled after besting the field at the Fighting Irish Classic earlier this month.

“We felt slightly invincible after our win,” said sophomore Logan Kim. “We have to take every tournament experience not for granted.”

No. 15 UCLA men’s golf placed 10th in a field of 14 at the Golf Club of Georgia Collegiate Invitational in Alpharetta, Georgia, shooting 6-over 870 across Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The result will close the books on the Bruins’ fall season, where they posted two top-three finishes and a pair of 10th-place outings.

Kim recorded the second-best individual performance of his collegiate career, tying for 14th with a 2-under 214. Despite carding 3-over par – the highest stroke count among those in Saturday’s top-20 – Kim notched a 3-under 75 in the final round to climb back up the individual ranks.

The Glendale, California, local kept his team from slipping below No. 9 Utah – just one stroke behind UCLA – with his hot streak on the tournament’s last nine holes.

“What he (Kim) told me before the week was that he wanted to stay committed to his game plan the entire time and not change it based on how he was playing – good or bad,” said coach Armen Kirakossian. “And to really just stay in there emotionally and not let it get away. Prior, he just couldn’t really put a good tournament together because he would have some bad stretches of golf.”

Water balls and other mistakes – particularly on a course where even marginal errors proved costly – stalled the Bruins’ four other athletes. Both sophomore Baylor Larrabee and freshman Tyler Loree failed to finish any of the three rounds below par, both tying for 54th place.

Junior Alex Papayoanou and senior Kyle An rounded out the lineup, finishing tied for 21st and 41st, respectively. An entered the tournament coming off his fourth career top-10 performance in the Bruins’ previous victory, but he appeared to internalize the team’s collective slump.

“In team golf, especially, momentum is huge,” Kirakossian said. “There’s a certain kind of energy that is flowing throughout the team and the coaches, and when you’re picking up momentum and then you have one bad shot, that can cost you a big number. … Unfortunately, we had too many of those momentum-killing moments to be able to move up the leaderboard.”

Although UCLA did not hit its stride on the green, No. 1 Virginia, which boasts the nation’s top-rated player in Ben James and produced four of the weekend’s top-10 scoring individuals, notched a dominant performance. The Cavaliers went 24-under 840 to win the tournament and earned their largest stroke margin of the season.

Duke, which narrowly ousted UCLA for the trophy at last year’s Golf Club of Georgia Collegiate Invitational, trailed behind Virginia after going 7-over par in the final round. The Blue Devils’ Bryan Kim led the 75-person individual field, recording an 11-under 205.

[RELATED: UCLA men’s golf earns season-best second place at Georgia Collegiate Invitational]

The Bruins are entering an extended break until January, when they are set to compete at The Copper Cup in Laguna Niguel, California.

“If there’s a silver lining of having a bad tournament to finish off your fall, it’s that hopefully it’s a good motivator for the guys to work really hard this winter break and come back focused and sharp,” Kirakossian said. “That’s what’s great about the game of golf, is that the minute you think you figured it out with a win, the next moment you get humbled with a 10th-place finish.”