March 17, 1998

THIS WEEK: The unanimous No. 1-ranked UNLV golf team will travel to Austin, Texas, to compete in the 32nd Annual Cleveland Golf/Morris Williams Intercollegiate at The Hills Country Club at Lakeway (Par 72, 6,954 yards) on Monday, March 23 and Tuesday, March 24.

THE FORMAT: A practice round will be held on Sunday, March 22 from 7:45 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. On Monday, March 23, 36 holes will be played with a shotgun start at 8:00 a.m. The tournament will conclude with 18 holes on Tuesday, March 24 with groups teeing off from the No. 1 and No. 10 tees from 8:00 a.m. - 9:30 a.m. Each team will have six players competing and the winner will be determined by the low four-man scores from each 18 hole round.

TOP-RANKED FIELD: Among the nine teams participating, eight are ranked in the top 25 of the MasterCard Collegiate Rankings. The teams include No. 1 UNLV, No. 2 Arizona, No. 8 Oklahoma State, No. 10 Houston, No. 11 TCU, No. 12 Florida, No. 19 Oklahoma and No. 20 New Mexico. Texas, who is the host team, is ranked No. 49.

UNLV'S LINEUP: As always, UNLV golfers need to qualify to compete in upcoming tournaments. Possible competitors for the Rebels will be senior Bill Lunde, junior Chris Berry, junior Charley Hoffman, junior Morten Vildhoj, sophomore Jeremy Anderson and freshman Scott Lander.

LAST YEAR'S MORRIS WILLIAMS: The Rebels finished first out of nine teams in last year's Cleveland Golf/Morris Williams Intercollegiate at The Hills Country Club at Lakway in Austin, Texas. UNLV (287-299-586) finished seven shots behind runner-up Oklahoma State (296-297-593). UNLV's Jeremy Anderson (69-75-144) finished second, one shot behind champion Victor Schwamkrug (71-72-143) of Houston. UNLV's Mike Ruiz (71-76-147) finished fifth, while Bill Lunde (75-73-148) finished tied for ninth.

REBEL RANKINGS: UNLV is ranked No. 1 in all three polls for the second consecutive season. Last year, the Rebels were the unanimous No. 1 for the majority of the season, a feat never before accomplished by a UNLV golf team.

REBEL RANKINGS:MasterCard (March 11)       Golfweek (March 5)         GCAA (Dec. 1)1. UNLV                     1. UNLV                   1.   UNLV2. Arizona                  2. Georgia Tech           2.   Clemson3. Georgia Tech             3. Arizona                3.   TCU4. Arkansas                    TCU                    4.   Arizona5. South Carolina           5. Oklahoma State         5.   Oklahoma St.6. Clemson                  6. Arkansas               6.   Georgia Tech7. Georgia                  7. Clemson                7.   Arkansas8. Oklahoma State              Houston                8.   Georgia9. Augusta State            9. Georgia                9.   Houston10. Houston                10. Augusta State         10.   Florida11. TCU                    11. South Carolina        11.   Augusta State12. Florida                12. Arizona State         12.   Arizona State13. North Carolina         13. East Tennessee State  13.   Auburn14. East Tennessee State   14. North Carolina        14.   Oklahoma15. Colorado State         15. Colorado State        15.   Colorado St.16. North Carolina State   16. Florida               16.   East Tenn. St.17. BYU                    17. New Mexico            17.   S. Carolina18. Arizona State          18. BYU                   18.   BYU19. Oklahoma               19. Auburn                19.   Northwestern20. New Mexico             20. North Carolina State  20.   UCLA21. Louisiana State        21. UTEP                  21.   New Mexico22. UTEP                   22. LSU                   22.   USC23. Auburn                 23. Minnesota             23.   Virginia24. Southern California    24. Southern California   24.   Ohio State25. Virginia               25. Oklahoma              25.   Kent State

INDIVIDUAL SUCCESS: UNLV is the only team in the nation that has three players ranked in the MasterCard individual top 20. They are Jeremy Anderson (5th), Bill Lunde (8th) and Charley Hoffman (18th).

RECORD BREAKERS: UNLV's win at the John A. Burns Intercollegiate on Feb. 18-20 was the best Rebel showing ever. UNLV (283-279-267-829, 35-under-par) set six records on its way to its fifth win of the season. The records follow:

• It was the first time that UNLV has recorded three-straight tournament wins. The Rebels' previous best was two in a row, which they accomplished twice (1992-93 and 1993-94).
• It was the first time that UNLV won five events in a season. The previous mark was four, which was set in 1993-94, 1995-96 and 1996-97.
• UNLV's third-round total of 267 set the record for the Rebels' lowest-ever round. The old mark was 271 at the 1992 NCAA West Regional at Tucson National Golf Club in Tucson, Ariz.
• UNLV's 21-under-par third round set the record for the Rebel's lowest under-par round ever. The old mark was 17-under-par at the 1992 NCAA West Regional.
• The Rebels' tournament total of 829 set the record for UNLV's lowest-ever tournament total. The old mark was 832 at the 1990 NCAA West Regional at the University Golf Course in Las Cruces, N.M.
• The Rebels' 35-under-par tournament set the record for UNLV's lowest-ever under-par total. The old mark was 32-under-par at the 1990 NCAA West Regional.

REBEL HONORS: Sophomore Jeremy Anderson has been this season's most honored Rebel. Most recently Anderson was named WAC Golfer of the Week on Feb. 18. The GolfWorld Invitational champion, was also named both the WAC Golf Athlete of the Month and the College Golf Foundation's Rolex National College Golfer of the Month for November.

OTHER REBEL NOTES: UNLV has recorded eight top-10 finishes in nine tournaments this season...Chris Berry and Bill Lunde's final-round scores of 65 at the John A. Burns tie them for the fourth-lowest round in Rebel history...Jeremy Anderson also shot a 65 in his win at the GolfWorld Invitational...Three ex-Rebels have shot rounds of 64...They were Chris Riley (1993-94), Warren Schutte (1992-93) and Edward Fryatt (1992-93)...Berry's Burns tournament total of 203 ties him with Anderson, who shot 203 at the GolfWorld Invitational earlier in the year, for the second-lowest 54-hole total in Rebel history...Hub Goyen shot the lowest 54-hole total in 1990 with 201 at the NCAA West Regional.

HEAD COACH DWAINE KNIGHT: One of the top collegiate coaches in the country, Dwaine Knight is in his 11th season with the Rebels. He has guided UNLV to four conference championships and three NCAA West Regional championships. In 1991 he was named the Golf Coaches Association of America's National Coach of the Year and the NCAA District VIII Coach of the Year. In 1992 he headed the staff for the United States vs. Japan All-Star Matches and was the West Team's coach at the NCAA East vs. West All-American Matches in 1994. Although he has received numerous accolades while with the Rebels, perhaps the highest honor Knight has received was when he was named the United States Palmer Cup Team Captain last year. Knight came to UNLV in the Fall of 1988 from New Mexico where he graduated from in 1969 and was the head golf coach from 1978-1987.

COACH KNIGHT'S COMMENTS: "It was a privilege to host the Golf Digest Collegiate Invitational this past weekend. It is one of the highlights of our schedule and the Desert Inn is such a great test of golf. It was a great event for our program, the city of Las Vegas and college golf in general. We certainly were not playing at the top of our game and we were not as sharp as we could have been, but with the quality of the field and the great scoring that was shown, I was very happy with the way we battled. We remained competitive and had a chance to win. It shows how far we have come when we are not at our best, but we still have a chance to win the tournament. If we keep doing that we will have a great chance to accomplish a lot of our goals."

ASSISTANT COACH CASEY WHALEN: Casey Whalen, who is in his first season with the Rebel golf program, is responsible for academic advising, fund-raising and recruiting in addition to his golf coaching duties. Whalen came to UNLV after spending one season as assistant coach with the women's golf team at Texas. He is a 1994 graduate of Arizona State.

RESULTS: In addition to UNLV Sports Information e-mailing and faxing the results to local media, the complete results for the Cleveland Golf/Morris Williams Intercollegiate may be obtained by calling the Infoconnection Fax-on-Demand System. Infoconnection may be accessed by dialing (800) 300-2050 from the handset of your fax machine. Media members then need to enter their PIN. If you do not have a PIN, please contact Pivotal Communications at (770) 399-0096 and request one. The Western Athletic Conference passcode is 922 and the document number is 1927.

LAST OUTING: UNLV finished third at the Golf Digest Collegiate Invitational at the par-72, 7,013-yard Desert Inn Country Club in Las Vegas, Nev., held March 13-15.

NEXT OUTING: UNLV's next action will be April 3-5 at the U.S. Intercollegiate in Orlando, Fla. It will be held at the par-72, 6,819 yard Lake Buena Vista Golf Course.