Nov. 21, 2002
FT. COLLINS, Colo. - UNLV dropped its opening match of the 2002 Mountain West Conference Tournament to BYU 3-2 (30-26, 30-32, 31-30, 30-16, 11-15) on Thursday night in Moby Arena. After splitting a pair of matches during the regular season, it took a neutral site match to decide the better team. The match tied last year's final between Colorado State and Utah as the longest match in MWC Tournament history.
UNLV has never won a match in Moby Arena, falling to Colorado State the last six years and also losing to Utah in the 2000 tournament.
"At times we played the best volleyball we are capable of," said UNLV head coach Deitre Collins. "We just couldn't pull through at crunch time."
UNLV took game-one 30-26 with Blair Wilkes and Leiana Oswald each dropping five kills on the Cougars.
The Rebels dropped game-two 32-30 with Wilkes, Christina Kirschner and Tarin Keith tallying five kills apiece. Sheila Ocasio-Clemente, who suffered a knee injury in warm-ups, made her first appearance late in the game. She finished with two blocks, one solo and one assisted.
BYU took the third game 33-31. Wilkes hit .500 with six kills, while Kirschner put up a pair of solo blocks. The Rebels hit only .073 (12-9-41) in the game.
With a 30-16 win in game three, UNLV picked up its largest single-game margin of victory over BYU ever. The Rebels hit .324 (16-4-37) in the game and held the Cougars to .000 (8-8-37). Wilkes was perfect on her four attempts, picking up four kills and a pair of digs.
UNLV played BYU into an 11-11 tie in game-five before the Cougars rattled off four straight points to win 15-11.
UNLV was led by Wilkes with 20 kills, while Kirschner and Oswald added 13 kills each and Patricia Assuncao added 10. Setter Nicki King led all players with five aces and had 55 assists, while Oswald led the Rebels with 18 digs. Assuncao also contributed 16 digs, while libero Nina Franchini had 15 and King tallied 11. Tarin Keith added six kills in two games.
"It was a hard fought match and unfortunately we were not victorious," said Keith. "We showed what were are capable of tonight and must use this to continue to get better and prepare for next season."
With the win, BYU advances to play Colorado State on Friday. UNLV returns home for the UNLV/Hardrock Thanksgiving Classic next weekend.
