March 13, 2005

LAS VEGAS - The Rebel women's golf team hosts the inaugural UNLV Spring Invitational this week, with the opening round slated to begin Monday at Black Mountain Golf and Country Club.

Seven of the top 30 teams in the country are in the 15-team field that will play 54 holes over three days at the par-72, 6,009-yard course in Henderson, Nev.

UNLV is coming off its most successful tournament this spring, a fourth-place finish last week at the Spartan Invitational. Junior Elena Kurokawa led the Rebels, carding a two-under total of 211 which included a four-under 67 in the second round.

Although this will be the first spring tournament at home for the Rebels, the last time UNLV played in the Las Vegas Valley it won the Founders Collegiate Showdown last fall for the school's fifth tournament title in program history. The showdown was played at Anthem Country Club.

Kurokawa leads the Rebels into this week's invitational and the reigning Mountain West Conference Golfer of the Month is playing the best golf of her UNLV career. She has been in the top-25 three times this spring, with an eighth-place place finish at the Wildcat Invitational and a 21st-place finish at the Northrop Grumman Regional Challenge to go along with her runner-up finish at the Spartan Invite.

Kurokawa will be joined in the Rebels' top five by Hwanhee Lee, Young Pak, Seema Sadekar and Allison Chell. Erin McGough, Ayeesha Kosugi, Christine Hentzner, Tina Mabanta competing as individuals for the Rebels.

Two top-10 teams in Golfweek's latest rankings, No. 5 Pepperdine and No. 9 Tennessee, headline the field, which also has No. Arizona, No. 23 Michigan, No. 27 Purdue and host No. 28 UNLV.

The tournament gets underway Monday morning at 8:30 a.m. (PST) with teams teeing off on the first and 10th holes and fans can follow the tournament live on golfstat.com.