March 15, 2006

HENDERSON, Nev. - Illinois concluded Wednesday's final round of the UNLV Spring Invitational where it entered the day - in 15th place.

Sophomore Casey Burden gave the Orange and Blue reason for optimism early with three birdies in her first seven holes, but the Lake Forest, Ill. native recorded only one more and ended the day at two-over-par (+15 overall) and tied for 43rd place. Fellow second-year golfer Stephanie Mory tied for 28th in spite of a one-under-par opening round.

A day after Indiana's Shannon Johnson relinquished her tie for first, sliding down to a tie for fourth place, the lady Hoosier re-claimed the top position, this time with sole possession. Long Beach State's Kay Hoey, who joined Johnson on the first day and New Mexico's Mikaela Backstedt at the top through two rounds, ultimately tied for fourth. Aside from Johnson's five-under total, only Campbell's Alejandra Shaw managed to shoot below par (-1.) Brigham Young's Rachel Newren met par and Da Sol Chung (UNLV) and Stacey Tate (Memphis) completed Hoey's trio behind Johnson.

While much of the leaderboard looked similar throughout, Mory was not the only high-ranked golfer to drop. Backstedt went from tied for first to tied for seventh place. Illinois State's Samantha Richdale landed in a tie for ninth, five places lower than when she teed off on Wednesday. Host UNLV's Seema Sadekar decreased more substantially, from third to a tie for 18th place. Sadekar's decline did not affect the final outcome for the Rebels who topped Brigham Young by three strokes for the tournament crown.

UNLV Spring Invitational final results
1. UNLV                      290-289-300=879
2. Brigham Young             303-290-289=882
3. Campbell                  296-292-297=885
4. Long Beach State          289-296-301=886
5. New Mexico                301-288-302=891
6. Fresno State              294-302-308=904
7. San Jose State            303-299-310=912
8. San Diego State           306-302-307=915
9. Idaho                     311-304-304=919
T10. Texas Tech              303-302-316=921
T10. Indiana                 301-307-313=921
12. Memphis                  308-300-317=925
13. Eastern Washington       313-300-315=928
14. Nevada                   308-307-316=931
15. ILLINOIS                 305-312-315=932
16. Colorado                 313-307-315=935
17. Illinois State           312-309-324=945
18. Colorado State           317-308-322=947

Illinois results T28. Stephanie Mory 71-78-78=227 T43. Casey Burden 79-78-74=231 T56. Seul Ki Park 78-78-80=234 81. Megan Godfrey 81-78-83=242 T86. Meghan Naik 79-81-85=245