April 21, 2004
Complete Release in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader
STORYLINE: The second half of Mountain West Conference play begins this week, and for the UNLV softball team (22-27, 4-6), it begins on the road. The Rebels head first to Fort Collins, Colo., to face Colorado State (30-11, 6-2) on Friday, April 23, before continuing on to Albuquerque, N.M., to meet New Mexico (27-24, 1-6) on Sunday, April 25 ... CSU currently sits second in the league standings, one game behind San Diego State, while the Lobos are in sixth place ... Friday's twin bill at Ram Field will give the Rebels a preview of the site of the MWC Tournament, which will be played there from May 13-15 ... Sunday's games against the Lobos will mark the fourth and fifth meetings between the two schools this year ... The road swing is the last of the Rebels' regular season.
ABOUT UNLV: Under first-year head coach Lonni Alameda, the Rebels return 12 letterwinners and nine starters from their 2003 squad. Offensively, the Rebels are led in hitting by senior left fielder Bridget Byrne (.414/0/11), although senior Lisa Sampson (.292/0/18) has led the squad in hitting each of the last three years ... Junior third-baseman Pauline Glenn (.225/3/18), an All-Mountain West Conference choice as a freshman, leads the unit with three homers, while senior Kacey Ellis (.277/1/26) paces the squad in RBI. Defensively, junior pitcher Jacqueline Kerrigan (18-16, 1.76) was an all-conference selection last year and leads the Rebels in the circle with 18 wins and 191 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. 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 COLORADO STATE: At 30-11, Colorado State owns the best overall record in the league, but it trails San Diego State by a game in the standings ... The Rams, the defending MWC Tournament champions, have won 14 of 16 since March 15, including a pair of wins over UNLV at Eller Media Stadium ... Head coach Mary Yori is 96-96 in her fourth season at CSU and has an overall record of 555-254-2 in her 15th season ... The Rams are led in hitting by Ricki Walker (.425/4/31), but have no real standout among the four players on the pitching staff ... Jessi Strickland (9-3, 2.23) leads the team in both wins and losses, while JayCee Wood (6-3, 1.78) is the squad's ERA leader ... CSU swept the doubleheader against UNLV on April 11, winning 5-1 and 7-3 ... Only 12 days will have elapsed between the two schools' meetings ... Colorado State leads the all-time series 22-15.
ABOUT NEW MEXICO: Despite an overall record over .500, New Mexico sits at the bottom of the MWC standings with a 1-6 league mark ... The Lobos had three home games cancelled due to poor weather in the first half of the conference season ... Sunday's games will mark the final home appearances for UNM in 2004 ... Lobo head coach Kim Newbern has compiled a 51-61-1 record in just under two full seasons in Albuquerque and is 261-172-1 overall in her eighth year ... The Lobos are led in hitting by Stephanie Kennedy (.319/3/18) and in pitching by Ashley Perkins (12-6, 2.44) ... UNLV and UNM have already met three times this year, with the Rebels capturing all three games ... UNLV wrestled a 3-2 extra-inning victory away at the Pepsi Arizona Tournament on Feb. 6 ... On April 9, the Rebels swept both ends of a doubleheader, winning 7-0 and 4-3 ... The Rebels have won four straight in the series to knot the all-time series at 18-18.
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.
WEEKLY WINNERS: 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.
On March 16, the Rebels claimed their second conference award as senior outfielder Bridget Byrne earned the league's Player of the Week honor after hitting .632 in five games. It was the first-ever award in the Las Vegas native's career. Byrne hit safely in each game, scored in all but one of them, and belted her first career triple in leading the Rebels to a 4-1 record for the week.
CAREER PITCHING LEADERS, PART ONE: Senior Kacey Ellis continues to make her mark on the UNLV record books. The Brentwood, Tenn., native already ranks ninth all-time with 92 appearances and ninth with a .460 (23-27) career winning percentage. With 23 career victories, she needs just three more to move past Brandi Isgar for 10th place on the school's all-time list. Her three career saves rank her fifth in the school's history.
CAREER PITCHING LEADERS, PART TWO: Ellis isn't the only active pitcher working her way through the record books. Junior Jacqueline Kerrigan has already scribbled her name throughout the career marks, ranking 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 457 and ranks her third in school history. She needs just 36 more to move past Amie Stewart, and trails leader Lori Harrigan by 289. She is on pace to finish second in school history behind Harrigan.
YEAR OF THE WORKHORSE: Kerrigan's career numbers are pretty staggering for a player in her junior year, and they have been significantly bolstered by the frequency of her play this season. Kerrigan has thrown about two-thirds of the team's innings this year. Her 191 strikeouts on the year -- a career high -- already rank as the fourth-best single season total in school history. She needs just 33 more strikeouts this year to break Lori Harrigan's 1991 record of 223.
LEADING OFF BY EXAMPLE: The Rebels are undoubtedly gracious for the leadoff play of senior Bridget Byrne. The Rebels' leadoff hitter is having a career year. She has already eclipsed her personal best totals for hits in a season and has nearly doubled her batting average from a year ago. Through 46 games, the Rebels' left fielder has collected 64 hits in 148 at bats for an amazing .432 average. She is within striking distance of the school record of .445 set by Kim Rondina in 1997. Byrne leads the Mountain West Conference in hits and ranks second in the league in batting average. An honor student from Las Vegas, Byrne has not missed a start in left field in three years, a span of 170 games.
MY BIG FAT GREEK OLYMPIC TEAM TRYOUT: The Rebels were without the services of starting third baseman Pauline Glenn in the team's doubleheader at Arizona. The Tucson, Ariz., native is a member of the Greek National Team and spent the week of March 22-29 participating in a workout with the team in preparation for the upcoming Summer Olympic Games. A third-generation Greek descendent, Glenn has been working out with the Greek Team since last summer. If she is chosen for the Greeks' final Olympic roster, she would join Lori Harrigan as Rebels competing in the Olympic Games.
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 this week's road trip, the Rebels return home for the final six games of the regular season. They will host league leading San Diego State for a pair of games on Saturday, May 1, before hosting BYU and Utah the following weekend to finish the regular season.
