The top eight teams in the 24-team, 54-hole event, which also includes New Mexico State, advance to the NCAA Championship later this month.

Hellbom, a junior, is UNM’s team leader. Physically — and vocally.

“She sings all the time on the course,” says UNM junior Sarah Salvo, one of the five Lobos who make up this week’s squad.

“She sings to us during tournaments, mostly to Sammi (Stevens) — ‘make a birr-die’ — when she’s on the green. We all love it.”

There’s a good reason Hellbom often breaks into song on the course. Those are the two reasons she’s in school.

Singing and golf.

Besides being one of the top players in school history — her career 75.11 stroke average is UNM’s seventh best all time — Hellbom is a gifted soprano.

“She’s a very special person,” says UNM coach Jill Trujillo. “It’s funny because when people see athletes at UNM, that’s what they see — students who go to class and athletes. But so many have some hidden talents.”

Especially Hellbom, a native of Vasteras, Sweden. She is majoring in Music Performance/Vocal and can sing in at least nine languages.

“We need to take classic diction for singers, so we don’t have to be fluent in all languages,” Hellbom says, “but have to know how to pronounce stuff. We have to know what it means.”

Last week, for the school’s Junior Voice Recital, Hellbom was the soprano for the program, which included the music of Henry Purcell, Franz Schubert, Claude Debussy and Hellbom’s favorite, Johann Sebastian Bach.

We’re not talking Miley Cyrus or Justin Bieber here.

“I don’t listen to much pop,” Hellbom says with a smile. “But I like country. Actually, if I was an American, I’d probably sing country music. But since I’m not American, I can sing (classical).”

But you are from Sweden, so how about ABBA?

“I like ABBA,” she says. “But I don’t want to sing stuff like that.”

A soprano performs in the highest vocal range and is often seen in operas. Soprano singers are mostly females, but some young boys and even older men can be considered sopranos.

Trujillo and the Lobos all attended Hellbom’s recital last week.

“It was just beautiful, the emotion of what she puts into it,” says Trujillo. “She’s such a fiery, fierce competitor on the golf course, and just to hear that voice in concert; it’s very demure and the epitome of beautiful.”

On the course, the swinging, singing southpaw is hell on wheels with her sticks and as the team’s rah-rah leader.

“She works really, really hard on her stuff, but always keeps her head and focus,” Salvo says. “So we all look up to her. On the course, she’s always waving to us and singing to us. She stands out from everyone else. That’s helped us play well and helped with our confidence.”

The UNM team includes sophomore Beth Buchner and freshmen Manon De Roey and Stevens. The Lobos are coming off a fourth-place finish in the Mountain West Conference Championships, in which they shot their two lowest rounds of the year (289, 292). The top four scores count toward the team total each round.

Hellbom and Stevens tied for ninth individually. Salvo was 12th.

“I think we’re peaking at the right time,” Trujillo said. “We’re seeded 18th (in regionals), but we’ve been right there, or have beaten, the teams we’ve seen that are seeded above us.”

Hellbom agrees.

“We are playing really well as a team right now,” she says. “We are confident and I think we have a good chance of getting to the (NCAA) Championship.”

Which would be great for the Lobos and Hellbom, who wants no reason to sing the blues.

NMSU: The Aggies, who were selected as an at-large team, are making their first regional appearance since 2006.

“This is exciting for us and we all believe that we worked hard to get to this point,” head coach Paul Brilliant said. “This team is capable of so much, and I am proud that they are able to compete in this tournament.”

Playing for the Aggies will be seniors Suteera (Pang) Chanachai, Apinporn (Mint) Swaschuto, Lauren (Buz) Bowerman-Ritchie, along with junior Ashley Elias and freshman Demi Mak.

Mak was named 2011 Western Athletic Conference Freshman of the Year and joined Chanachai on the All-WAC first-team. Co-head coaches Paul Brilliant and Jackie Booth were named 2011 WAC Coaches of the Year as voted on by the leagues coaches.

The NCAA finals will be May 18-21 in Bryan, Texas.
— This article appeared on page D1 of the Albuquerque Journal
Capsule – First round: Women’s Golf
Photo Credit – MORGAN PETROSKI/JOURNAL
Cutline – Rebecca Hellbom, a native of Sweden and leader of the UNM women’s golf team, can sing in at least nine languages.