April 19, 2007

ST. GEORGE, Utah - MWC Championships First Round Results

If the UNLV women's golf team is going to win a fourth-straight Mountain West Conference tournament championship, the Rebels will have to come from behind as they are in fifth place following Thursday's first round of the 2007 tournament.

The Rebels shot a total of 317 (+33) on the Entrada at Snow Canyon Course located in St. George, Utah, a par-71, 6,210-yard layout for the seven-team field. UNLV has won the last three tournament titles, with last year's crown coming on the same course.

BYU has four of the top five individual spots and is the team leader after 18 holes with an opening-round total of 294 (+10), and the Cougars are followed by TCU (300, +16), New Mexico (314, +30), Colorado State (315, +31) and then the Rebels. Wyoming (321, +37) and San Diego State (324, +40) round out the field. Catherine Matranga of TCU and Rachel Newren of BYU each have a share of the first round lead after both shot opening-round scores of 72 (+1).

Seema Sadekar leads the Rebels and is tied for sixth following the first round with five-over 76 as she rolled in a pair of birdies but also had seven bogies to go with nine pars on the afternoon. Sadekar was joined in the top 20 by a pair of freshman in Natasha Krishna and Melissa Mabanta. Krishna is tied for 12th after shooting a 77 (+6) and Mabanta is currently tied for 19th after carding an 80 (+9).

Rebel sophomore Nicole McGirr is tied for 31st with an opening round score of 84 (+13) and another sophomore, Kasi Lee, is 34th with an 86 (+15).

It is a young Rebel team under the direction of head coach Missy Ringler, as just Sadekar had played in a MWC tournament before today's opening round of the 2007 tournament.

Friday's second round is slated to start at 8:30 a.m. (PT) and fans can follow the tournament live by clicking here.