April 22, 2006

ST. GEORGE, Utah - UNLV women's golfer Da Sol Chung was named the Mountain West Conference Player of the Year and she joined three of her Rebel teammate on the All-MWC team, the league announced Saturday night.

The honor came after the freshman helped UNLV win its third-straight MWC Tournament title as Chung earned medalist honors by winning a three-player playoff on Saturday afternoon.

Chung, who also shared Freshman of the Year honors with Mikaela Backstedt of New Mexico, was joined on the All-MWC squad by Elena Kurokawa, Seema Sadeker and Grace Woo. It was the second year in a row that Kurokawa was on the All-MWC team, who made the team last year after winning medalist honors at the 2005 MWC Championships.

For the season, Chung paced the MWC with a 72.58 stroke average and collected six top-10 finishes during the season. She was named the MWC Golfer of the Month in February. Chung's award marks the third-straight year that a player from UNLV has taken home player of the year honors, as Kurokawa earned the honor last year and Sunny Oh won it in 2004.

UNLV head coach Missy Ringler was named the MWC Coach of the Year as well, marking the second time in three years that Ringler won the award as she first earned the honor back in 2004.

Coach of the Year: Missy Ringler, UNLV

Player of the Year: Da Sol Chung, UNLV

Co-Freshmen of the Year: Da Sol Chung, UNLV and Mikaela Backstedt, New Mexico

All-Conference Team

Seema Sadekar, UNLVGrace Woo, UNLVDa Sol Chung, UNLVElena Kurokawa, UNLVChelsea Benton, Colorado StateMikaela Backstedt, New MexicoPy Bengtsson, New MexicoRachel Newren, BYU