UNLV roundup: Ban ties for medalist honors in Arizona
UNLV senior Shintaro Ban tied for medalist honors Sunday at the Thunderbird Invitational men’s golf tournament, helping the 23rd-ranked Rebels finish one stroke behind host Arizona State atop the leaderboard in Tempe, Arizona.
Ban, who finished at 11-under-par 202 to match Colorado’s Yannik Paul, won his third individual title of the season and fourth of his career.
No. 22 Arizona State shot 22-under 830, followed by UNLV (831), No. 8 Oklahoma (833) and No. 1 Oklahoma State (835) in a 17-team field featuring five teams ranked in Golfweek’s top 25 and three in the top 10.
UNLV freshman Jack Trent fired the tournament’s low round, an 8-under 63 on Sunday that moved him from a tie for 44th to a tie for eighth at 5-under 208 in the 85-player field.
Ban and Paul finished two shots ahead of third-place finisher Quade Cummins of Oklahoma.
Also for UNLV, junior Harry Hall and freshman Garrick Higgo tied for 19th at 1-under 212, and sophomore Justin Kim tied for 64th at 11-over 224.
Ban is tied for fifth in program history for career individual wins with John Oda (2014-17), Derek Ernst (2008-12), Chris Riley (1992-96) and Ed Fryatt (1991-94).
SOFTBALL
At Boise, Idaho, Mackenzie Sullivan hit a two-out, three-run, walk-off homer to cap a four-run ninth inning by Boise State in its 12-11 victory over the Rebels.
Sullivan finished 3-for-5 with five RBIs and was one of five players with multiple hits for the Broncos (28-13, 7-5 Mountain West), who lost the series’ first two games by scores of 2-1 and 1-0.
Janine Petmecky homered twice, and Justine Federe also went deep for UNLV (24-16, 6-9), which was outhit 16-12.
Reina Bondi went 3-for-5 with a double and two RBIs, Samantha Diaz went 2-for-4 with two doubles and an RBI, Mia Trejo went 2-for-4 with a double, and Myranda Bueno drove in two runs for the Rebels, who wasted leads of 4-0 and 5-2. The game was tied at 6 after seven innings.
Charlie Masterson (6-7) took over for Petmecky in the pitching circle after two innings and allowed seven runs on 10 hits in the final 6 2/3 innings. Petmecky was touched for five runs on six hits in two innings. The duo combined to issue one walk and notch one strikeout.
MEN’S TENNIS
At Reno, Courtney Lock won in straight sets at No. 2 singles, the senior’s fifth victory in his past six matches, but the Rebels were dominated in doubles and lost 4-1 to UNR.
The Wolf Pack (14-6, 3-3) swept the completed doubles matches and won three of the four completed singles matches — all in three sets.
Alexandr Cozbinov, ranked 89th nationally, had his six-match win streak halted with a 4-6, 6-2, 6-1 loss to Julien Evrard at No. 1 singles. Cozbinov finished 5-2 against league opponents this spring, with both losses coming in three-setters played indoors.
Also for UNLV (13-9, 3-4), Ruben Alberts lost 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 to Robert Margitvalvi at No. 3 singles, and Eric Samuelsson lost 3-6, 7-6 (2), 7-5 to Jeremy Merville at No. 4 singles.
