March 14, 2007

BOULDER CITY, Nev. - UNLV women's golf shot an even-par final round to finish fifth overall at the UNLV Spring Invitational on Wednesday, which was played at the Boulder Creek Golf Club.

The Rebels finished the tournament with a team score of 873 (+9) on the par-72, 6,199-yard course. BYU easily took home team honors with a team total a 17-under par 847, 10 strokes ahead of second-place New Mexico, which carded a team total of 857 (-10). Kelly Nakashima of Idaho and Jennifer Shipley of Fresno State shared medalist honors with a three-round total of 205 (-11). UNLV won the title last year with a 54-hole score of 879 (+15), which was three strokes better than BYU.

"Obviously we are disappointed that we did not defend our title, but our bar has been raised and we have to remember that we are a young team that has to grow and learn from tournaments like these," head coach Missy Ringler said. "We have two freshmen and two sophomores in the lineup and we are continually learning to compete. We need to work hard, focus and prepare for the conference championship and take some pride in the fact that we are the three-time defending champions."

UNLV was paced individually by sophomore Da Sol Chung, who fired a two-under 70 on the day to finish with a total of 215 (-1), which put her in a tie for 14th. It was the second-straight sub-par round she shot after carding a four-under 68 on Tuesday.

Also in the top 20 for UNLV was freshman Natasha Krishna, who rolled in her second 71 (-1) of the tournament to finish tied for 19th overall with a score of 218 (+2). Krishna carded a 71 on the opening round of the invitational.

Rounding out the Rebel scorecard was Seema Sadekar (223, +7) who finished tied for 38th, Melissa Mabanta (224, +8) who finished tied for 44th and Kasi Lee (228, +12) who came in tied for 60th. Also playing as individual was Nicole McGirr (227, +11) who finished tied for 56th.