COLORADO SPRINGS (UNLVRebels.com) -  A pair of UNLV women's golfers has been recognized by the Mountain West as the league announced its annual postseason awards Tuesday. Sophomore Polly Mack earned a second straight first team selection, while senior Elizabeth Prior was tabbed an all-conference second team selection for the second consecutive year.



Mack, from Berlin, Germany, has enjoyed an accomplished first two years of collegiate golf. The sophomore was named the conference's player and freshman of the year and earned a first team selection a year ago then followed that up this season with another first team selection. Mack has had a productive spring for the Rebels, capturing her first two collegiate medalist honors. The first came at the Battle at Boulder Creek in February when she tied with Prior for first, while the second happened at the Mountain View Invitational in Tucson, Arizona in March, where she nabbed her first outright collegiate title by two strokes with her career-best tournament score of 10-under 206. That win also saw Mack match her career single-round score of 5-under 67. The sophomore has been the most consistent golfers in the Mountain West over the last two seasons, ranking fifth in scoring average this year at 73.12 after leading the league a year ago. In a short time, Mack has also etched her name in UNLV records as her player of the year and freshman of the year selections in the same season were a first by any Rebel golfer.



Prior, a Surrey, England native, is wrapping up her Rebel career with a third all-league honor after being named to the first team as a sophomore in 2017 followed by second team nods the last two years in 2018 and 2019, respectively. The senior turned in a strong spring, tying for first at the Battle at Boulder Creek with Mack and winning the Rebel Beach Invitational outright by seven strokes, bringing her career collegiate tournament victories to four. Prior ranked seventh in the conference with a 73.58 scoring average and had three top-five finishes, including the pair of medalist honors. In her first six rounds to start her final spring campaign, Prior recorded three rounds of 68, which included two rounds of 68 in her Rebel Beach victory at Spanish Trail Country Club. Prior has also left her stamp on the Rebel record book as her 8-under 64 in the first round of the 2016 Las Vegas Collegiate Individual is the lowest single-round score in program history and her 16-under 200 in a 2017 Las Vegas Collegiate Showdown win is tied for the program's lowest 54-hole tournament score with former Rebel All-American Therese Koelbaek. She was also a significant contributor to UNLV's three straight Mountain West Championships from 2016-18, helping the Rebels become just the second team in conference history to win the title three consecutive years two different times.

The Rebels recently finished third in the 2019 Mountain West Championships and will find out Wednesday, April 24 if they will receive an at-large bid to the NCAA regionals. If UNLV is not chosen, Mack and Prior are projected to have an opportunity to qualify as individuals.

2019 Mountain West Women's Golf Postseason Awards

Player of the Year: Abegail Arevalo, San José State
Freshman of the Year: Natasha Andrea Oon, San José State
Coach of the Year: Dana Dormann, San José State
 
FIRST TEAM
Brigitte Thibault, Fresno State
Gioia Carpinelli, San Diego State
Abegail Arevalo, San José State
Natasha Andrea Oon, San José State
Polly Mack, UNLV
 
SECOND TEAM
Tara Finigan, Boise State
Victoria Gailey, Nevada
Fernanda Escauriza, San Diego State
Sara Kjellker, San Diego State
Elizabeth Prior, UNLV