May 6, 2004

HOWEY-IN-THE-HILLS, Fla. - The No. 17 UNLV women's golf team shot an opening round 297 and sits in second place at the NCAA East Regional on Thursday.

The Rebels trail Duke by 11 strokes, but enjoy a comfortable 11-stroke edge over eighth-place Florida State, which is the cutoff for advancement to the NCAA finals. The top eight schools and two individuals will qualify for the national championship, slated for May 18-21 in Opelika, Ala.

"This golf course is really tough, so I'm pretty pleased with where we're at right now," UNLV head coach Missy Ringler said. "We could have been a little better. Through 14 holes, we were doing well, but dropped a couple shots on the last three holes."

Beginning the tourney as the No. 5 seed, the Rebels sit only one stroke ahead of Oklahoma State, and three other schools sits within six shots of UNLV.

Individually, Sunny Oh led the squad with an even par round of 72. She trails North Carolina's Meaghan Francella by just three strokes for the individual lead.

Also figuring into the Rebels' team score were Elena Kurokawa, who shot 73, Young Pak, who shot 75, and Hwanhee Lee, who carded a 77. Seema Sadekar's 79 was discarded from the team total.

Second round play at the par-72, 6,165-yard Mission Inn Golf and Tennis Resort will begin at 8:00 a.m. EDT, and the Rebels will tee off at 1:20 p.m.