TUCSON, ARIZONA (UNLVRebels.com) - The UNLV women's golf team turned in a strong opening round Friday at the Mountain View Collegiate, shooting a 5-under 283 as a team to sit in fifth place. The three-day event co-hosted by Missouri and Kansas State is taking place at Mountain View Golf Club (par 72 6,352 yards) in Tucson, Arizona.
Senior and Las Vegas native
Veronica Joels turned in a career performance on the day, shooting her lowest single-round score of 5-under 67. Joels sank six birdies against just one bogey over the first 18 holes, helping her into a tie for second heading into Saturday's second round. Junior
Nicole Lorup also had an impressive day, joining Joels near the top of the leaderboard in a tie for fifth after she shot a 4-under 68 in a round that included not one but two eagles. Freshman
Hina Matsui shot even on the day to sit tied for 28th, followed by fellow freshmen
Kendall Todd and
Sydney Bryan in a tie for 58th and 65th at 4-over and 5-over, respectively.
Texas Tech has the lead after 18 holes with a whopping 17-under 271, while San Jose State is in second at 11-under and Oklahoma State in third at 7-under. TTU's Anna Dong is in first on the individual leaderboard at 7-under, while SJSU's Natasha Oon and Oklahoma State's Han-Hsuan Yu are tied with Joels for second at 5-under.
UP NEXT: The second round gets underway Saturday morning with tee times starting at 8 a.m. PT. Live scoring will be available on Birdiefire
here.
NOTES:
• Rebels have won three of their last six tournaments and finished at par or better in five straight during that span, a new program record
• UNLV opened the spring campaign winning its home tournament, The Show, by 13 strokes at 4-under 860 at Spanish Trail Country Club
• UNLV won two tournaments during the fall portion of its season for the first time in program history (Dale McNamara & The Clash at Boulder Creek)
• UNLV shot an 8-under 280 in the final round of the fall (eighth lowest all-time) and opened the spring with a 12-under 276 at The Show (T-3rd lowest all-time)
• The Rebels won the 2021 Dale McNamara Invitational Oct 11-12 in Tulsa, Oklahoma by 11 strokes, marking first tournament win since 2019 (Las Vegas Collegiate Showdown); Three Rebels finished in the top six with freshman
Sydney Bryan winning her first collegiate tournament at 4-under 212
• UNLV finished at 3-under at the Jim West Invitational, marking the first time the Rebels finished under par in back-to-back tournaments since the spring of 2017
• UNLV has six returners from last year's squad and welcomed seven newcomers to the squad this year, including six freshmen
•
Marissa Uradomo, a four-time MVC All-Conference golfer at Indiana State, joined Bush-Herzer's staff as an assistant coach in September of 2021
• Head coach
Amy Bush-Herzer is in her 11th year at the helm of the program. She has led her team to a conference championship four times.