April 6, 2004
Complete Results
ST. GEORGE, Utah - The No. 21 UNLV women's golf team successfully defended its title and won the BYU Dixie Classic by 27 strokes over San Francisco, breaking two school records in the final round on Tuesday.
The Rebels held a 15-stroke lead heading into the final round, yet still managed to fire a one-over-par 289 as a team at the par-72, 6,127-yard Entrada Course at Snow Canyon. That bested the school record of 291, shot on four previous occasions, including Monday's second round.
Additionally, the strong final round capped a 12-over-par 876 score for the 54-hole tournament, bettering the 879 shot by the Rebels just weeks ago at the Spartan Invitational in San Jose, Calif.
"Today we played great," UNLV head coach Missy Ringler said. "Dropping a 76 is what you want to see as a coach. This is the kind of score we have talked about shooting, the kind of score we know we need to compete at conference and in a regional."
Almost overlooked in the impressive team effort was the Rebels' 1-2 finish on the individual leaderboard. Sophomore ace Sunny Oh led the event from wire-to-wire, shooting a final round 73 to cap a one-under-par 215. She defeated fellow Rebel and freshman Seema Sadekar by three strokes as Sadekar shot even par on Tuesday for a two-over finish.
For Oh, the win marked the second of her career. She was the medalist at last year's NCAA West Regional.
The runner-up finish was a career best for Sadekar.
"Everybody played great and sort of fed off each other," Ringler said. "Seema was playing to win the tournament, and got herself to two-under at one point. I liked seeing them competing against one another."
The Rebels' finish could have been as good as 1-2-3 if not for a rules interpretation that forced Elena Kurokawa's first-round 74 to be disqualified. Undaunted by the ruling, Kurokawa was ferocious in the next two rounds, finishing both loops under par. Had her opening score counted, she would have tied Oh for the tournament lead. Instead, her second-round 71 and final-round 70 credited toward the two best rounds in school history.
Young Pak shot a 74 to climb from 17th place to 12th and cap the Rebels' team score. In 12th place, she tied with fellow Rebel Hwanhee Lee, who was four-over par on Tuesday.
The victory was the third title for both a team and individual at UNLV. As a team, UNLV won last year's BYU Dixie Classic and the 2003 Northwest Invite in Sunriver, Ore., last fall. Individually, Hwanhee Lee won the 2002 Aztec Invitational, and Oh won the NCAA West Regional last spring.
The strong showing comes at the right time of the season as the Rebels carry this momentum into the Mountain West Conference Championship, slated for April 24-26 in Sunriver, Ore.
