Sept. 7, 2006

LAS VEGAS - UNLV women's golf, which opens its season this coming Sunday, was ranked 18th in Golfweek's preseason top 30, the magazine announced today. Golfweek also tabbed sophomore Da Sol Chung as a preseason first-team selection while also naming newcomers Kristin Ingram and Natasha Krishna as freshmen to watch.

The Rebels have won the last three Mountain West Conference championships under the guidance of head coach Missy Ringler and overall the squad returns two players from last year's championship lineup and five letterwinners overall.

This is the second preseason honor for Chung, who was also selected as one of Golf World's top-10 players to watch this year. Ingram and Krishna were part of a top-rated recruiting class by Ringler this past year that also included Melissa Mabanta.

Defending national champion Duke was the preseason number one in Golfweek's poll, followed by Arizona State, Georgia, Pepperdine and then UCLA. USC was sixth, Auburn was seventh while Purdue, Virginia and Texas A&M rounded out the top 10.

Golfweek's Preseason Top 30

1. Duke2. Arizona State3. Georgia4. Pepperdine5. UCLA6. Southern California7. Auburn8. Purdue9. Virginia10. Texas A&M11. Wake Forest12. Arizona13. Tennessee14. Florida15. Vanderbilt16. Oklahoma State17. Stanford18. UNLV19. LSU20. SMU21. Ohio State22. Kent State23. Michigan State24. Arkansas25. South Carolina26. BYU27. New Mexico28. North Carolina29. Florida State30. TCU