May 6, 2009
LAS VEGAS - The UNLV women's golf team begins play at the NCAA West Regional on Thursday which will be held at the ASU Karsten Golf Course in Tempe, Ariz., and the Rebels will be playing in their seventh straight regional.
UNLV will be the 11th seed in the tournament and is part of a field of 21 teams and three individuals that features eight teams in Golfweek's latest top 25 in No. 1 Arizona State, No. 3 USC, No. 10 LSU, No. 13 Pepperdine, No. 16 Arkansas, No. 17 San Jose Staten, No. 20 Arizona and No. 25 Cal. UNLV's best finish in a NCAA Regional tournament came in 2004, when the Rebels finished second in the East Regional to Duke. Last year the Rebels finished third in the NCAA West Region and earned a trip to the NCAA Tournament, the third berth in school history to the national championships.
Leading the Rebel lineup is Therese Koelbaek, and the sophomore will be looking to repeat her performance from last year's West Regional, where she tied for medalist honors while helping UNLV to a third-place finish. Koelbaek shot a three-round total of 210 (69-68-73, -6), becoming just the second Rebel to ever earn medalist honors at a NCAA regional event.
Koelbaek, a repeat selection to the All-Mountain West Conference team, will be joined in the lineup by junior Natasha Krishna, who was also named to the all-league team and is the only Rebel to have previously played a collegiate tournament on the Karsten Golf Course. The lineup will be rounded out by junior Alejandra Guacaneme and freshmen Kristen Schelling and Bethany Glassford, and the two rookies have also played on the regional course as juniors.
Thursday's opening round gets underway at 7:00 a.m. (PT) and the Rebels will tee off on the par-72, 6,230-yard course at 7:10 a.m. on hole No. 10, and their playing partners will be fellow MWC member TCU and San Francisco. Fans can follow the action live by Clicking Here.
The top eight teams and top two individuals not on qualifying teams from each regional advance to the NCAA Championships, scheduled for May 19-22 at the Caves Valley Golf Club in Owings Mills, Maryland.
NCAA West Regional
The West Regional will be played May 7-9 at the ASU Karsten Golf Course, in Tempe, Ariz., hosted by Arizona State University. Conference automatic qualifiers are indicated in parenthesis next to the institution.
Teams:
1. Arizona State (Pacific-10 Conference)2. Southern California3. Louisiana State4. Pepperdine5. Arkansas6. San Jose State (Western Athletic Conference)7. Arizona8. California9. UC Irvine10. San Francisco11. UNLV12. TCU13. Texas A&M14. Oregon15. Long Beach State (Big West Conference)16. Colorado17. Texas18. Baylor19. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (Southland Conference)20. Northern Arizona (Big Sky Conference)21. Oral Roberts (The Summit League)
Individuals:1. Miki Ueoka, Santa Clara2. Chelsea Stelzmiller, UC Davis3. Alice Kim, UC Davis
