March 10, 2004
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STORYLINE: For the fourth and final time this spring, the UNLV softball team hosts a tournament in Las Vegas. The UNLV Tournament II features five teams and 12 games at Eller Media Stadium. Coming to town for the event are Jacksonville, Long Island, Oregon and Southern Utah. Games will be played from Friday, March 12 through Sunday, March 14.
ABOUT UNLV: Under first-year head coach Lonni Alameda, the Rebels carry a 12-13 record into the week. Offensively, Bridget Byrne (.390/0/4) leads the team in hitting, but Lisa Sampson (.294/0/7) has led the team both of the last two seasons. Pauline Glenn (.186/2/6), an All-Mountain West Conference choice as a freshman, has two homers on the year, while Kacey Ellis (.284/0/12) paces the squad with 12 RBI. Defensively, Jacqueline Kerrigan (11-9, 1.35) was an all-MWC selection last year and leads the Rebels in the circle with 11 wins and 130 strikeouts.
HEAD COACH Lonni Alameda: The UNLV softball team has a new face in the dugout this year as Lonni Alameda is in her first season as the Rebels' head coach. Alameda came to Las Vegas from Stanford University, where she oversaw the Cardinal pitching staff and helped coach the team to six straight NCAA Regional appearances. A two-sport star at the University of Oklahoma, Alameda was a two-time All-Big Eight infielder and hit .359 as a senior in 1992. She earned her first career victory in a 3-2 eight-inning decision over New Mexico on Feb. 6.
REBELS ON THE WEB: All UNLV softball up-to-the-minute information, including team roster and bios, season schedule and results, and game and season statistics, is available on the school's Official Athletics Site, www.unlvrebels.com. A member of the Official College Sports Network, unlvrebels.com utilizes Gametracker, the state-of-the-art software to support live internet scoring. Through Gametracker, fans can follow Rebel softball action pitch-by-pitch from around the globe. While available for most of the games on the Rebels' schedule, only Thursday night's game against Team USA will furnish a Gametracker broadcast. For a complete schedule, log on to unlvrebels.com.
REBELS ON THE AIR: UNLV head coach Lonni Alameda can be heard every Monday at 8:00 p.m. PT on the Rebel Softball Update on KDWN AM 720 Talk Radio. Along with host and former UNLV football coach Harvey Hyde, Alameda will spend a segment talking Rebel softball, including recapping the team's play the weekend before and scouting the squad's upcoming opponents.
ABOUT SOUTHERN UTAH: Southern Utah carries a 10-5 record into Las Vegas ... The Thunderbirds split a doubleheader at Colorado State on Tuesday, taking the opener 5-3 behind a complete game from Lacey LePrey, before falling 7-0 in the nightcap ... The loss snapped a five-game winning streak that included a four-game sweep of Northern Colorado ... Last season, LePrey tossed a one-hitter to the Rebels, but Jacque Kerrigan earned the win with a four-hit shutout in the 1-0 decision ... UNLV leads the all-time series 22-9.
ABOUT LONG ISLAND: Long Island opened the season with a 10-game losing streak, but snapped the skid against Coastal Carolina at last week's Speedline Invitational ... The Blackbirds come to Las Vegas with a 1-11 overall record ... Despite sitting three time zones apart, UNLV and LIU have met in both of the past two seasons ... The Blackbirds bumped the Rebs 2-1 at last year's Capital Classic in Sacramento, payback for a 6-2 UNLV victory at the same tourney the year prior ... Those are the only two meetings between the two schools.
ABOUT OREGON: Oregon is ranked No. 14, according to the March 10 edition of the NFCA Top 25 ... The Ducks are 17-5 overall, coming off a 4-1 performance at the Speedline Invitational ... Oregon won its pool in Clearwater, but forfeited its games in the championship bracket ... UO and UNLV have three common opponents this year - both schools defeated Rutgers and Hawaii, but the Ducks were successful against Cal State Northridge where the Rebels failed twice ... Oregon and UNLV last met in 2002, once in Las Vegas and twice in Eugene ... The Ducks took all three meetings and now trail the all-time series 7-9.
ABOUT JACKSONVILLE: Jacksonville owns an 8-18 record coming into the week, marked by a five-game losing skid ... The Dolphins also played at the Speedline Invitational last weekend, placing fifth in their pool with a 1-5 record ... Among the teams JU has faced and lost to this year are Michigan State, Hofstra, Western Michigan and Rutgers, team against which UNLV owns a 3-1 record ... UNLV has never met the second-year program on the softball diamond.
RANKED OPPONENTS: Just under half way into the season and UNLV has already gotten its share of ranked opponents. Through 25 games, the Rebels have faced three opponents ranked in the NFCA Top 25 and five others that received votes at some point during the year. On top of that, UNLV played a pair of games against the top-ranked team in NAIA, Simon Fraser. All in all, the Rebels are scheduled to face 11 different opponents that received votes in the NFCA poll.
DATE OPPONENT RESULT CURRENT RANKING Feb. 6 Cal State Northridge L, 7-1 NR Feb. 7 #2 Arizona L, 10-1 2 Feb. 8 Cal State Northridge L, 3-1 NR Feb. 13 #35 Hawaii W, 1-0 NR Feb. 13 #3 California L, 12-0 3 Feb. 14 #10 Michigan L, 2-1 T11 Feb. 14 #35 Notre Dame L, 3-1 30 Feb. 21 #30 Michigan State W, 3-2 T33 March 6 #30 Illinois L, 6-0 32
KERRIGAN ALMOST THROWS NO-NO: UNLV junior Jacqueline Kerrigan almost turned one of the most special feats in the game. The Eugene, Ore., native carried a no-hitter against Utah Valley State into the seventh inning, but was disappointed when the Wolverines' Jamie Hendricks dropped a base hit into shallow centerfield with two outs. Kerrigan struck out the next batter to record the complete-game shutout and finish her second career one-hitter. The game came one day on the heels of another no-hit bid by the Rebels' ace - she held top-ranked NAIA power Simon Fraser hitless until the fifth inning, but left the game after the suspense was broken and the Rebels ahead 7-0.
STREAKS STOPPED: The Rebels' streaky luck ran out in Clearwater, Fla. Pitcher Jacqueline Kerrigan ran a scoreless innings pitched streak to just over 27 innings when Western Michigan pushed across four runs to halt the streak. The streak covered five games, three shutout wins and two one-hitters. Just one day later, Morgan Bostwick saw an 11-game hitting streak stopped by Boston U. The hitting streak was the longest by a Rebel since Melissa Inouye hit safely in the last 12 games of her senior season.
WEEKLY WINNER: It took just one week for Rebel ace Jacqueline Kerrigan to earn her first Mountain West Conference Pitcher of the Week award. In the first week of the year, Kerrigan was cited by the conference for posting a 2-2 record and striking out 27 batters in four games at the Pepsi Arizona Tournament in Tucson, Ariz. It was the fourth time in her career that the Rebels' junior pitcher had been so honored.
CAREER PITCHING LEADERS: The Rebels have two players that are weeding their way through the school's career pitching leaders lists. Senior Kacey Ellis and junior Jacqueline Kerrigan both already rank among the school's leaders in appearances. Ellis needs just four more wins to move past Tanya Edwards for 10th place on the school's all-time list and is already the sixth-winningest pitcher in school history by percentage. Kerrigan ranks in the pack in appearances, starts, complete games, innings pitched, wins, losses, saves, shutouts, ERA and strikeouts. Perhaps most impressive in her strikeout total, which currently sits at 396 and ranks her third in school history. She needs just 97 more to move past Amie Stewart and trails leader Lori Harrigan by 329. She is on pace to finish second in school history behind Harrigan.
PRESEASON POLLS: While UNLV did not rank in the Top 25 poll, the Rebels did check in at No. 5 in the Mountain West Conference Preseason Coaches Poll announced Jan. 22. With 23 points and four first-place votes, San Diego State was chosen as a slight favorite to win its third straight league title over Colorado State, which scored 21 points and the other two first-place votes. Rounding out the poll were BYU (18), Utah (13), UNLV (9) and New Mexico (6).
ON DECK: Following the UNLV Tournament II, the Rebels head to Fullerton, Calif., to compete in the Kia Classic. The Kia will be played on the campus of Cal State Fullerton from March 17-21. UNLV is slated to face three ranked opponents there: Nebraska, Arizona State and Florida State.
