April 15, 2010

SEASIDE, Calif. - The UNLV women's golf team is in third place following the opening 18 holes of play Thursday at the 2010 Mountain West Conference Championship, which is being played at Black Horse Golf Course.

The Rebels shot a team score of 308 (+20), which is two strokes behind Colorado State for second place, while New Mexico grabbed the first-round lead by posting a team score of 6-over 294. The Lobos have three of the top four players on the leader board, including Jodi Ewart and Rebecca Hellborn, who each shot opening rounds of 1-under 71.

A trio of golfers is pacing UNLV, as Therese Koelbaek, Alejandra Guacaneme and Mandi Incorvaia each shot first-round scores of 4-over 76 which has them in a group that is tied for seventh. Koelbaek had an up-and-down day, as she rolled in four birdies in the first eight holes and was 3-under at that point. From there, however, the junior had consecutive double-bogies to close her round over par.

"I was really happy with our play on the front nine," UNLV head coach Missy Ringler. "We were right in it and then I felt we let a lot of shots go on the back nine. The conference is very good and there should be four teams heading to postseason play. We have two more days and I am confident that we can get back in this."

UNLV senior Natasha Krishna is tied for 20th after she carded an opening-round 80 (+8) and Kristen Schelling is tied for 28th after she shot an 82 (+10). The Rebels begin their second round at 9:40 a.m. (PT) on the par-72, 6,009-yard course.

New Mexico won last year's team title, marking the second consecutive championship and sixth overall for the Lobos in the 10-year history of the tournament. UNLV (2004, 2005 and 2006) and UNM are the only two programs to win more than one championship, and TCU is the only other program that has even won one tournament, and that was in 2007.

Fans can get live results of the 2010 MWC Championship by Clicking Here.