Feb. 4, 2005

LAS VEGAS, Nev. - The UNLV women's golf team begins its spring season on Monday, Feb., 7 at the Northrop Grumman Challenge and the No. 25 Rebels will find out right away where they stand among the nation's elite.

There will be no shortage of talent at the challenge as 14 of the 15 teams in the field currently are ranked in the top 25 in the latest Golf World rankings. Eight of the top 10 teams will trek to Palos Verdes Golf Club, including No. 1 Duke, No. 2 Arizona State and No. 3 UCLA. Washington (6), Oklahoma State (7), New Mexico (8), host Ohio State (9) and Pepperdine (10) are the other top-10 teams competing. 16th-ranked Stanford, 17th-ranked Texas, 19th-ranked Arizona, 20th-ranked USC and 23rd-ranked Florida join the Rebels as top-25 teams at the challenge. Michigan State is the only team in the field that is not ranked in the top 25.

Seema Sadekar, Hwanhee Lee, Elena Kurokawa, Young Pak and Tina Mabanta make up UNLV's lineup at the challenge for head coach Missy Ringler. Lee has already won one individual title year, as the senior claimed medalist honors at the Las Vegas Founders Collegiate Showdown, finishing with a three-day total of 215 (-1). Behind the strong play of Lee at that tournament, UNLV went on to win the team title as well with a three-day total of 875 (+11).

The three-day, 54-hole tournament will be played on the par-71, 5,912-yard course in Palos Verdes Estates, Calif.