April 16, 2018
Round One Results | Second Round Pairings | @UNLVWGolf
RANCHO MIRAGE, California (UNLVRebels.com) - UNLV women's golf turned in a stellar start to the 2018 Mountain West Women's Golf Championship, shooting a 1-under 287 as a team to sit atop the leaderboard after Monday's first round at Mission Hills Country Club. The two-time defending champions were the only team to shoot under par on the day and will carry an eight-shot lead over second place Fresno State into Tuesday's second round.
Senior
Mackenzie Raim, playing in her final conference tournament, carded the best individual round of day one at 2-under (70) to sit alone in first place with a one-shot lead. She dropped six birdies on the day, which was tied for the most in Monday's opening round.
In all, four of five Rebels competing ended the first day in the top eight and all five are in the top 20. Juniors
Elizabeth Prior and
Shannon Oh shot even rounds of 72 to sit tied for fifth, followed by sophomore
Nastasia Kossacky one shot behind them at 1-over (73) and in a tie for eighth. Freshman
Polly Mack came in only two shots behind Kossacky at 3-over (75) and tied for 17th.
Behind UNLV in second is Fresno State at 7-over (295), followed by New Mexico and San Diego State, who are both at 10-over (298) in a tie for third. San Jose State is two shots behind that in fifth at 12-over (300), while UNR is in sixth at 14-over (302), Boise State is in seventh at 15-over (303), Colorado State is in eighth at 18-over (306) and Wyoming rounds it out in ninth at 19-over (307).
Three players are currently tied for second behind Raim at 1-under - New Mexico's Ingrid Gutierrez, Fresno State's Mimi Ho and San Jose State's Alexandra Cooper - and three more players are a shot behind that at even - UNLV's Prior and Oh and San Diego State's Milagros Chaves .
The Rebels are looking for their third straight Mountain West title this week, which would mark the second time in program history the team has captured three consecutive league championships.
QUOTABLES: Head coach Amy Bush-Herzer - "I'm really impressed with how we came out focused and ready to go this morning and we kept that going throughout the entire round today."
REBEL SCORES:
- 1st - Mackenzie Raim, senior (70, -2)
- T5th - Elizabeth Prior, junior (72, E)
- T5th - Shannon Oh, junior (72, E)
- T8th - Nastasia Kossacky, sophomore (73, +1)
- T17th - Polly Mack, freshman (75, +3)
TOP FIVE TEAMS:1. UNLV (287, -1)
2. Fresno State (295, +7)
T3. New Mexico (298, +10)
T3. San Diego State (298, +10)
5. San Jose State (300, +12)
REBEL NOTES:
•If UNLV can win a third straight conference title, it would be the first time the program accomplished the feat since they won three in a row from 2004-06
•UNLV won three tournaments during the 2017-18 regular season, including two tournaments this spring, both in Las Vegas. Two of the victories were its home-hosted tournaments - the 2017 Las Vegas Collegiate Showdown in October andthe inaugural Rebel Beach Invitational at Spanish Trail Golf Club at the end of February.
•Their second tournament win this spring was a 53-stroke win at the Jackrabbit Invitational, March 12-13
• UNLV has appeared in 15 straight NCAA Regionals
• The Rebels have won three conference championships in seven years under head coach Amy Bush-Herzer
NEXT FOR THE REBELS: The Rebels will tee off in the third wave of pairings for Tuesday's second round, playing with Fresno State and New Mexico. Mack will be the first to start at 8:30 a.m., followed by Kossacky at 8:39 a.m., Oh at 8:45 a.m., Prior at 8:57 a.m. and Raim at 9:06 a.m.
