Koelbaek takes first, Rebels second in MWC golf tourney

UNLV senior Therese Koelbaek won medalist honors, but the Rebels stumbled in the final round and finished second in the women's Mountain West Conference Championship on Saturday in Phoenix.

Koelbaek, the conference's golfer of the year, shot a third-round 4-under-par 68, the day's low score, to finish at 7-under 209 at Wigwam Resort. She had four birdies and finished four strokes ahead of Colorado State's Betsy Kelly and Brigham Young's Kelsey Vines in winning her first MWC title and tying the record for largest margin of victory.

Koelbaek became the fourth UNLV woman to win the individual title, joining Sunny Oh in 2004, Elen Kurokawa in 2005 and Da Sol Chung in 2006.

Her team wasn't as fortunate. The Rebels shot 4-over 292 to finish at 6-over 870, five shots behind Texas Christian. BYU took third at 882.

UNLV sophomore Ellis Keenan, who led after the first round and shared the lead after the second, finished tied for fifth at par 216 after shooting a final-round 75. Senior Alejandra Guacaneme tied for 12th at 221, junior Bethany Glassford tied for 20th at 224 and freshman Katerina Prorokova was 31st at 234.

■ UNLV MEN'S GOLF -- The Rebels shot a final-round 2-under 286 and finished second in the Cougar Classic at Provo, Utah.

Colorado State fired a 13-under 275, the day's low score, to win the three-round tournament at 17-under 847, four strokes ahead of UNLV, at Riverside Country Club. Pacific finished third at 857 in the 18-team event.

Rebels sophomore Kevin Penner, who led after two rounds, shot a 1-over 73 Saturday and finished tied for fourth at 8-under 208, three strokes behind medalist Zac Blair of BYU.

■ UNLV WOMEN'S TENNIS -- The Rebels defeated BYU 6-1 in San Diego to claim at least a share of the Mountain West regular-season championship.

UNLV (18-4) improved to 7-0 in the conference and will play 6-1 San Diego State today with a chance to win the outright title and finish the MWC season undefeated for the second time in three years.

The Rebels won two of three doubles matches to take a 1-0 lead, then took five of six in singles. Lucia Batta (No. 1), Aleksandra Josifoska (No. 2), Adrienn Hidvegi (No. 4), Jana Albers (No. 5) and Anna Maskaljun (No. 6) got the victories.

■ UNLV BASEBALL -- The Rebels hit into four double plays and left the bases loaded twice in a 9-4 loss to BYU in a Mountain West game at Wilson Stadium.

Scott Dysinger was 4-for-5 with two runs and Trent Cook went 3-for-4 with two RBIs for UNLV (24-14, 4-7), which won two of three from the Cougars (18-14, 6-5). Buddy Borden took the loss, giving up three runs on seven hits in four innings.

■ UNLV SOFTBALL -- Utah pitcher Generra Nielson pitched a five-inning one-hitter to spark the Utes to a 14-1 victory in Mountain West action at Eller Media Stadium.

The Rebels (21-16, 3-3) got their only hit and run in the first inning, when Tayler Aleman's two-out single scored Ashli Holland, who had reached on a dropped fly ball.

■ CSN BASEBALL -- Matt Dunbar pitched a one-hitter, coming within a leadoff hit of a perfect game, to lead the College of Southern Nevada to a 3-0 victory over the College of Southern Idaho in the second game of a Scenic West Athletic Conference doubleheader at Twin Falls, Idaho. The Coyotes (23-21, 12-16) lost the first game, 6-0.

■ CSN SOFTBALL -- The Coyotes lost to host Salt Lake Community College 6-2 and 10-3, falling to 25-25 and 18-18 in the SWAC.