May 18, 2004

OPELIKA, Ala. - The No. 14 UNLV women's golf team stayed in the pack for most of the afternoon, but the Rebels slipped a bit on the backstretch and finished the day in 22nd place, 20 shots over par.

Despite the rocky round, only 10 strokes separate UNLV from fifth place as most of the field of 24 logjammed in the middle of the leaderboard.

"I feel like we got off to a little bit of a rough start," head coach Missy Ringler said. "We need to try to forget today and focus on the fact that there are 54 holes left."

Shocking the field atop the logjam was Oklahoma State, who worked around the par-72, 6,215-yard Grand National Lake Course with an even 288. The Cowgirls have a one-stroke lead over top seeds UCLA and Duke.

Individually, Ohio State's Allison Hanna turned in a three-under 69 and holds a one-stroke edge over three other players. Only nine players on the day finished under par.

UNLV's Sunny Oh would have made the 10th to finish under par, but double bogeyed the final hole to post an even 72. She was the Rebels' top shooter on the day and sits in a nine-way tie for 10th place.

Sophomore Elena Kurokawa scored 37 on both nines to post a 74, and Hwanhee Lee chipped in a 78 to the team total. However, the Rebels were forced to count Seema Sadekar's 84 as Young Pak struggled with an 85.

The Rebels, who were assigned the day's final tee times, got a late start after nearby lightning forced a 39-minute delay. UNLV did not complete its round until 7:45 p.m. CDT, and the Rebels must begin second-round play at 8:50 a.m.

Complete daily results can be found online at golfstat.com (http://www.golfstatresults.com/public/index.cfm?tournament_id=389)