May 4, 2004
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STORYLINE: The No. 17 UNLV women's golf team returns to the postseason for the second consecutive year as it hits the road this week to compete in the NCAA East Regional. The Rebels earned the No. 5 seed in the East after winning the Mountain West Conference Championship and claiming the league's automatic berth to the postseason. Co-hosted by Stetson University and the Central Florida Sports Commission, the 54-hole qualifier will be player at the Mission Inn Golf and Tennis Resort (Par 72, 6,923 Yards) in Howey-in-the-Hills, Fla., from Thursday, May 6 through Sunday, May 8. The tournament is one of three regional qualifying events used to determine the field for the NCAA Championship. The top eight teams and two individuals from each tourney will advance to the NCAA finals, slated for May 18-21 in Opelika, Ala. The tournament will feature live scoring, available on unlvrebels.com, courtesy of Golfstat.
ABOUT UNLV: The Rebels return four starters and eight letterwinners from last season's NCAA Regional-qualifying team. UNLV has won three events this season, including the last two in which it played. The Rebels opened the year in improbable fashion, winning the Northwest Invite by 12 strokes over TCU last fall. In April, the squad defended its title at the BYU Dixie Classic, defeating San Francisco by 27 strokes. The momentum carried into the Mountain West Conference Championship where the Rebels upset fifth-ranked New Mexico for their first conference title. Sophomore Sunny Oh was the medalist at both of the last two events and has soared to No. 20 in the rankings. Likewise, UNLV climbed to No. 17 in the latest edition of the Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index.
THE FIELD: Stetson University and the Central Florida Sports Commission co-host a talented field of 21 schools and three individuals. Listed according to seed are: Duke, Auburn, Oklahoma State, Wake Forest, UNLV, Florida, North Carolina, Tulane, LSU, Tennessee, Furman, South Carolina, Florida State, Mississippi, North Carolina-Wilmington, Alabama, Miami (Fla.), North Carolina State, Campbell, St. Francis and Southern. Additionally, the field includes three individuals: Adriene Millican of East Carolina, Carol Green of James Madison and Natalia Novorro of Florida Atlantic.
THE LINEUP: The Rebels will use the same five-player lineup for the remainder of the season: Hwanhee Lee, Elena Kurokawa, Sunny Oh, Young Pak, and Seema Sadekar.
HEAD COACH Missy Ringler: UNLV women's golf head coach Missy Ringler was named the Mountain West Conference Coach of the Year in just her second year at the helm of the UNLV program. The Bloomington, Ind., native has guided the Rebels to both of their postseason appearances, sent a player to the national championship and produced the school's first All-American in the sport. An All-Big Eight golfer at Iowa State from 1990-95, Ringler spent three years as the head coach at the University of Minnesota before taking over the UNLV program in its second year. She and her husband, Lance, a writer for Golfweek, reside in Henderson and proudly welcomed their son, Landon, to the neighborhood on January 11, 2003.
UNLV AT THE NCAA REGIONAL: In just their third year as a program, the Rebels return to the postseason for the second time. UNLV received an at-large bid to compete in last year's NCAA West Regional in Tempe, Ariz. The Rebels finished 11th overall, 14 strokes behind Stanford for the final qualifying spot, but Sunny Oh was the medalist and first individual qualifier for the NCAA Championship. Oh shot a then-school-record 67 in the first round and held on to win the event by two strokes, her first collegiate victory.
POSTSEASON EXPERIENCE: Three players return to the postseason for UNLV with the experience of last year's NCAA West Regional. Sunny Oh, Elena Kurokawa and Hwanhee Lee all participated last season. Young Pak and Seema Sadekar will play in May for the first time in their collegiate careers.
UNLV VS. THE FIELD: Unlike last year's trip to the Regional, the Rebels have not seen many of the teams in this year's field. In fact, UNLV has met only seven of its 20 opponents on the links this year and own a head to head record of 6-4 against those schools. The Rebels have two wins over Tennessee against one loss and single victories over Alabama, LSU, North Carolina and South Carolina. Meanwhile, UNLV is 0-2 on the year against Oklahoma State and finished behind Tulane in their only meeting. The Regional will mark UNLV's first meeting with the 13 other schools.
REWRITING THE RECORD BOOKS: The Rebels have done plenty of rewriting of the school record book this year. Three times in the spring, the Rebels broke the school record for low team round and for low team tournament scores. The most impressive of the rounds came in the finale at the Mountain West Conference. The Rebels shot 276 as a team in the final round, shattering the previous record by 13 strokes that stood for only three weeks. The team finished the 54-hole conference tournament with an 856 score, 20 strokes better than the 876 the group shot at the BYU Dixie Classic. Leading the way to the school record round was freshman Seema Sadekar, who broke Sunny Oh's low round record of 67 with a five-under par 66.
VICTORY COUNT: As a team, UNLV won three times in 2003-04. The Rebels won the Northwest Invite by 12 strokes over TCU, the BYU Dixie Classic by 27 strokes over San Francisco, and the Mountain West Conference Championship by two strokes over New Mexico. Prior to the year, UNLV had only won team win in the program's history.
VICTORY COUNT, TWO: UNLV also boasted two individual wins this year, both by sophomore Sunny Oh. Oh won the BYU Dixie Classic by three strokes over teammate Seema Sadekar just three weeks before topping the field at the MWC Championship, defeating New Mexico's Katrina Leckovic and Shannon Johnson by two strokes. The wins were the second and third of Oh's career and brought the school's all-time individual win total to four. Hwanhee Lee earned medalist honors at the 2002 Lady Aztec Invitational.
OH EARNS MWC PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Sunny Oh became the first player in school history and the first player in conference history other than a player from New Mexico to earn the Mountain West Conference Player of the Year Award. While Oh's victory at the conference championship may have cemented the award for her, it was her solid play all year that put her in position to win. Oh ranked second in the league with a 73.93 scoring average and twice earned the conference's Player of the Month awards.
RINGLER NAMED MWC COACH OF THE YEAR: Also honored following the MWC Championship was head coach Missy Ringler, who guided the only team other than New Mexico to win an MWC crown. On the strength of the Rebels' play all season and at the conference championship, Ringler was named the league's Coach of the Year. It marked the first time that Ringler had been so honored and the first such award to be won by UNLV.
OH EARNS ALL-MWC ACCOLADES: For the second time in her career, Sunny Oh was named to the All-Mountain West Conference team. Oh was the only Rebel chosen to the team, and earned the honor for the second straight year.
OH RECOGNIZED BY GOLF WORLD: In addition to all of the league honors bestowed upon Oh, Golf World chose Oh as its Player of the Week in the magazine's April 16 edition. The recognition came after Oh won the BYU Dixie Classic and led the Rebels to the team title there.
OH GETS TASTE OF LPGA: As if Sunny Oh's collegiate resume was not impressive enough, the sensational sophomore became the first player in school history to play in an LPGA event when she qualified for the field of the 2004 Takefuji Classic in Las Vegas. Oh won a one-round qualifier to earn a spot in the 143-player field. As an amateur, Oh tied for 49th overall, finishing the 54-hole event at five-over par.
FIRST TIME TO FLORIDA: By getting assigned to the East Regional, the Rebels will play for the first time ever in the state of Florida. In fact, UNLV has played in the Eastern Time Zone just twice in school history. Last year, UNLV competed in the Mercedes-Benz Women's Intercollegiate in Knoxville, Tenn., marking the school's first trek East. The second came at last year's NCAA Championship, played in West Lafayette, Ind. The time change played a factor in neither tournament as the Rebels placed fifth in Tennessee and Sunny Oh, the lone representative at last year's national finals, placed 11th overall and earned All-America honors.
QUOTING COACH RINGLER: "We're very flattered to go back to the postseason. We were expecting to go, so these last few weeks was more about waiting to see where we would end up. We would have liked to have been closer to home, but mostly we are just excited to have a chance to try to advance to nationals."
