Oct. 26, 2005
LAS VEGAS -
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Rebels Come Home For Two, Look To Regroup After Losses
After a week on the road last week, the Rebels come home for two matches at the Cox Pavilion this weekend. On the docket for UNLV are visits by Air Force (Thursday) and New Mexico (Saturday). A month ago, the Rebels played these same two opponents on the road and won both matches.
For UNLV the second half of its conference season begins this weekend. The Rebels enter the weekend series with a 5-3 mark at the halfway point. Their record is good enough to place the squad in fourth-place, just percentage points out of second and third. There are only four teams above the .500 barrier and UNLV is one of them.
After this weekend's home matches, the Rebels hit the road for four-straight before closing out the regular season at home against Utah and BYU.
Last Week In Review
UNLV played arguably its toughest week of the 2005 season with three road matches in a sixday span. The Rebels went the distance against Nevada, Reno last Monday night and came up short in the 3-2 contest. The loss to UNR snapped the Rebels four-match winning streak. This past weekend, the Rebels headed northeast for two against two of the conference's most dominant squads, Utah and then-#15 BYU.
The Rebels were swept in three by the Utes thus ending UNLV's four-match conference winning streak and followed that with a hard fought four-gamer against BYU. With the addition of the two losses, UNLV has lost three in a row overall and two-straight to conference foes.
In Salt Lake City, UNLV fell by scores of 32-30, 30-19, 30-25. The Utes out hit the Rebels 53-to-43 in the kill department and .304-to-.115 in hitting. Lauren Miramontes led the team with 11 kills. Melody Nua held the highest hitting percentage with a .444 hitting percentage (four kills, no errors, nine attempts) and 34 assists. Jada Walker and Michelle Banks tied for the team-lead in digs with 10 apiece.
Against the nationally ranked Cougars, the Rebels jumped out to an early 1-0 lead with a 30-23 game one win, but dropped the match with BYU winning games two through four with scores of 24-30, 25-30, 28-30. Both teams were held to low hitting percentages as UNLV hit for a season-low .038, while BYU hit .122. The Cougars out hit the Rebels 57-to-52.
Maria Aladjova topped all Rebels in kills with 14, while Miramontes followed close behind with 13. For the second-straight match, Nua held the best hitting percentage with a.188 (six kills, three kills, 16 attempts).
