Sept. 8, 2008

LAS VEGAS - UNLV women's golf was just outside of the top 25, coming in ranked 27th in Golfweek's preseason poll, which featured 30 of the top collegiate programs in the country.

The Rebels, coming off of program-best 16th-place finish at last year's NCAA Championships, return six letterwinners, including four student-athletes who played in the national tournament. Included in that group is Golfweek Honorable Mention All-American Therese Koelbaek, who won two tournaments last year and is entering just her sophomore season.

"We are very excited about our preseason ranking," head coach Missy Ringler said. "We have a very talented squad this year and are returning most of our top players from the team that played well at the NCAA Championships last season. With the addition of Kristen Schelling and Bethany Glassford, we will have a great amount of depth this year. We are really looking forward to starting the season and playing in our first tournament."

UNLV was one of three Mountain West Conference schools to appear in the rankings, joining No. 19 New Mexico and No. 23 TCU. The top spot went to UCLA, followed by Arizona State, Duke, USC and Oklahoma State.

The Rebels open their season on Sept. 18 at the 2008 Branch Law Firm/Dick McGuire Invitational, which is hosted by the University of New Mexico and played at UNM's Championship Course.

Golfweek Preseason Top 30

1. UCLA2. Arizona State3. Duke4. USC5. Oklahoma State6. Denver7. Purdue8. Pepperdine9. Georgia10. Alabama11. Florida12. Wake Forest13. LSU14. Virginia15. California16. Auburn17. Stanford18. Texas A&M19. New Mexico20. North Carolina21. Louisville22. Notre Dame23. TCU24. Arkansas25. Georgia State26. Oregon27. UNLV28. Arizona29. Vanderbilt30. Michigan State