Oct. 17, 2008

First Round ResultsA>

PALO ALTO, Calif. - UNLV sophomore Therese Koelbaek fired a sizzling round of three-under par to pace the Rebels on Friday at the opening round of the Stanford Intercollegiate, which is being played at the Stanford Golf Course.

Koelbaek rolled in four birdies, including one on her final hole to get to three under, against just one bogey and is currently tied for third with a group of four other players with a 68 (-3). She helped UNLV to a team score of 287 (+3), which has it currently tied for 10th in a strong field that features 14 teams in Golfweek's latest top-25 poll.

Fellow sophomore Alejandra Guacaneme also turned in a sub-par round, shooting a one-under 70 that featured six birdies and has her in a group that is tied for 13th. At one point in her round Guacaneme was four under but she had three bogies and a double bogey over her final eight holes.

"We are off to a good start and I am very happy with our first round," UNLV head coach Missy Ringler said. "Therese and Alejandra both had great rounds and played very solid all day, and I am really looking forward to the next two days."

UCLA has the 18-hole lead with a team score of 277 (-7), just one shot ahead of Oklahoma State (278, -6) and two shots better than USC and host Stanford. Caroline Masson of Oklahoma State has the individual lead after the first round with a six-under 65, one stroke better than Lizette Salas of USC and three strokes ahead of Koelbaek.

Rebel junior Natasha Krishna was next on the leaderboard, sitting tied for 48th with a two-over 73, followed by freshmen Kristen Schelling (76, +5) who is tied for 68th and Bethany Glassford (77, +6) who is tied for 75th.

UNLV is part of an impressive field that includes No. 1 USC, No. 3 UCLA, No. 5 Oklahoma State, No. 6 Vanderbilt and No. 9 Duke. A total of 16 teams are competing in the tournament, which continues Saturday morning on the par-71, 6,117-yard course.

Fans can follow the tournament live.