Columnist Victoria Sun: Lady Rebels face tough slate

Victoria Sun

Wednesday, July 18, 2001 | 9:51 a.m.

Victoria Sun is a Las Vegas Sun sportswriter. Reach her at 259-4078 or by e-mail at victoria@lasvegassun.com.

Texas, Stanford and UCLA are on the schedule.

And not a cream puff is in sight.

This isn't the UNLV men's basketball schedule I'm talking about.

It's the penciled-in schedule for the first-ever UNLV women's golf season that starts the second week in September.

The Lady Rebels' fall season will be spent playing tournaments in New Mexico, Vanderbilt, Oregon State and Hawaii.

"I wanted to keep our fall schedule light because we have six freshmen and a new team," UNLV coach Kelley Hester said.

Opening at New Mexico's invitational will be an early challenge for the Lady Rebels.

Things don't get any easier in the spring when UNLV travels to San Diego State, San Jose State, UCLA, Texas and Stanford before conference play begins.

"I was really pleased," Hester said of the big-time schedule. "I got a lot of favors. A lot of people want to come to Las Vegas so hopefully I can host an event in the 2002-03 season."

Hester, a former Georgia assistant coach, believes her association with former Georgia head coach Beans Kelly helped her secure so many tough tournaments.

Another reason is the talented group of golfers she has recruited.

Despite the fact that Hester missed out on the early signing period, she still landed an impressive group headed by Young Pak and Hwanhee Lee, both from Cerritos, Calif. Tina Mabanta of Vancouver, B.C., Angela Olivarri of San Antonio, Texas and Erin Borcherts, a Cimarrron-Memorial High School graduate who has transferred from Oregon State, make up the rest of the class.

"Everybody knows we've got a good recruiting class," Hester said. "A coach asked me two weeks ago when I was out recruiting if I had the best recruiting class in the country.

"It's sort of a long-running joke because of course I've got the largest class. But I know that Young Pak and Hwahnee Lee are two freshmen that are as good as anybody else's in the country."

Hester expects to get two more freshman walk-ons and two more transfers. The final two members of the team will reportedly include another local freshman walk-on and Christine Hentzer, a Gorman High School graduate who qualified for the U.S. Publinx and will be a sophomore at UNLV.

Hester is prohibited by NCAA rules to discuss the athletes who did not sign letters of intent.

The Anthem Country Club will serve as the team's home course.

Hester is looking forward to starting the season.

"We'll see what they're made of," she said. "If we don't play ranked teams, we won't know where we need to be or how to get there. I think we'll sneak up on some teams."