June 19, 2006
LAS VEGAS -
End of Season Release in PDF Format
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On Deck The Rebels' season came to an end on May 12 when the team was eliminated from the Mountain West Conference Tournament in a 1-0 defeat to Utah. The Rebels went 2-2 in tournament action, but couldn't overcome an early setback to the Utes. UNLV closed out the season with a 26-37 record, in what was a long and arduous season to say the least.
The Mountain West Conference Tournament Bracket:
Thursday, May 11 11:30 am Game 1: #3 Utah def. #6 New Mexico, 9-1 (5) 2:00 pm Game 2: #4 UNLV def. #5 Colorado State, 5-4 4:30 pm Game 3: #3 Utah def. #2 BYU, 1-0 7:00 pm Game 4: #2 San Diego State def. 4 UNLV, 6-0Friday, May 12 11:30 am Game 5: UNLV def. New Mexico, 4-0 (UNM eliminated) 2:00 pm Game 6: BYU def. Colorado State, 3-1 (CSU eliminated) 4:30 pm Game 7: Utah def. UNLV, 1-0 (UNLV eliminated) 7:00 pm Game 8: BYU def. SDSU, 8-4Saturday, May 13 TBD Game 9: Not necessary. 2:00 pm Game 10: SDSU def. BYU, 11-7 (BYU eliminated) 5:30 pm Game 11: Utah def. SDSU, 5-4 (SDSU eliminated)
Mountain West Conference Sends Three To Regionals: For the first time in conference history, the Mountain West had three teams move on to postseason play. With Utah winning the automatic bid into the 2006 NCAA Tournament, the selection committe decided to take San Diego State (regular season champions) and BYU (second-place in the regular season), as well.
Prior to 2006, the most conference teams taken to the NCAA Tournament was two. In 2001, 2003 and 2005 the league had two schools make postseason trips. This year is the first, since the league began play that an even-numbered calendar year had more than one entry. The one constant in those even-numbered years, was that Utah was the lone school to advance. Utah kept its string of every other year appearances in the NCAA Tournament alive, while being joined by two familiar faces in SDSU and BYU.
Utah was shipped to the Austin Regional hosted by the third-seeded Texas Longhorns. Joining the Utes and `Horns in Texas were the Indiana Hoosiers and the UTSA Roadrunners. The Utes dropped their first game to IU (3-0), but rebounded the following day with a win against those same Hoosiers (5-1). Following the victory, UU faced UTSA and disposed of them (3-2) for the right to play for the regional crown. Unfortunately, the host team knocked the Utes (3-0) out of the tournament.
San Diego State travelled north to Los Angeles for a regional hosted by the top-seeded UCLA Bruins. SDSU followed the same path that Utah took with two wins book-ended by two losses. The Aztecs were defeated by Long Beach State (1-0) and then picked up their first win over Missouri State (1-0). They exacted revenge on the 49ers with a 3-1 elimination win before succumbing to the Bruins in a 7-0 defeat.
BYU was the lone MWC school to host a regional, as Provo welcomed the14th-seeded Washington Huskies, Kansas Jayhawks and Southern Utah Thunderbirds to town. BYU suffered a shut out 3-0 loss to KU on day one. The Cougars eliminated SUU 5-4 in their first game of day two, but were knocked out with a 2-1 loss to Kansas. Washington wound up winning the regional and advancing onto the Super Regionals.
2006 In Review The 2006 season was an arduous one for the Rebels. The season began with high hopes and promise. The one constant coming in was that this would be one of the toughest schedules in UNLV softball history, as well as one of the most difficult in the nation.
The season began well for the Rebels with three straight wins in the Alexis Resort Kick Off Classic. The third win was punctuated with a Rosa Ordaz walk-off grand slam to defeat Illinois-Chicago. The team closed the classic with a 4-2 record.
The following week, UNLV hosted the Louisville Slugger Desert Classic with 23 other teams coming to town. The Rebels didn't have luck on their side as the team dropped its first game to Northwestern in late-inning fashion. The team then alternated wins and losses for to finish 2-3 overall. The biggest hit the team suffered was the loss of Jaci Hull for the remainder of the season due to a broken right hand suffered in a dramatic win against Kansas.
With the loss of Hull, UNLV's lineup was altered with Maggie Livreri shedding her catching gear and picking up a visor and an infielder's glove. Britney Hillyer took over catching duties for the remainder of the year with Rosa Ordaz getting some experience behind the dish, as well.
The team hit the road for the the Palm Springs Classic, but sandwiched three losses in between wins. The team defeated Oklahoma State and Ohio State, but lost close games to Texas A&M and Texas.
The Rebels returned home to host the UNLVInvitational, their third and final home tournament. UNLV won three of five and continued its dominance over its in-state rival, Nevada, Reno.
After hosting three of their first four weeks, the Rebels hit the road for 13 consecutive games over a three-week stretch. The squad traveled across the Pacific Ocean for five games at the Hawaiian Airlines Spring Fling Tournament. The Rebels won game one against Longwood. In its second game, Penn State got a walk-off grand slam to defeat the Rebels. UNLV wound up going 2-3 in Hawaii.
Unfortunately, the trip to the Islands began a downward spiral. The team went on a stretch of losing 10 straight contests and 12 of 13 overall. After returning to Las Vegas for a day, the team headed West to California for a single game against then-No. 3 UCLA and to play in Cal State Fullerton's Judi Garman Classic. The Rebels made the affair in Los Angeles close until the Bruins opened up the scoring late.
In the Judi Garman Classic, the tea's competition was primarily top-25 caliber, except for Cal State Northridge. The team wound up going 0-5 in Fullerton.
The Rebel woes continued into the final weekend of the road trek. At Arizona State, UNLV was swept by the Sun Devils in a doubleheader.
Back in Las Vegas, the team hosted Missouri for a three-game set. The Tigers pushed UNLV's losing streak to 10 games, but the Rebels turned the tables and won games two and three of the series.
The first half of the Mountain West Conference season wasn't kind to the Rebels. UNLV dropped its first five games before closing out the first half 2-8. The second time around facing MWC foes, the team played .600 ball going 6-4.
A highlight of MWC play was ruining San Diego State's bid at an undefeated conference season. The Aztecs rolled into Las Vegas with a perfect mark and ranked 24th in the ESPN/USA Softball poll. But UNLV wrecked that with a 3-0 blanking.
In between MWC play, the Rebels went to Fullerton for the second time. In this trip, UNLV played Cal State Fullerton and wound up taking a split.
In the MWC Tournament, UNLV went 2-2 while alternating wins and losses. The Rebels defeated Colorado State and New Mexico, while suffering losses to San Diego State and Utah.
The loss to Utah was tough, in that, UNLV gave up the only run of the game on a sacrifice fly in the first inning. Christie Robinson entered the contest in the second inning and shut down the Ute offense. She did not allow a hit in 6.0 innings of work. The Rebels could only muster two hits by Brittany Freight and were eliminated in the 1-0 contest.
Those Coming To Vegas: Head coach Lonni Alameda signed three student-athletes to join the Rebel Softball program in 2007. They are: Olivia Hawkins (San Antonio, Texas), Lauren Briones (San Bernardino, Calif.) and Casey Thompson (Lakewood, Colo.).
Hawkins is a senior at Churchill High School in San Antonio, Texas. She is a multiple sport student-athlete. In her four years of high school, split between Churchill and McKinney North H.S. (McKinney, Texas), she has participated in basketball, track, cross country and softball.
Briones is a senior at Cajon High School in San Bernadino, Calif. She has been a two-sport student-athlete as she has played volleyball and softball all four years.
Thompson comes to UNLV as a junior in standing. She has played the past two seasons at Otero Junior College in La Junta, Colo. She is a pitcher that helped her team to the National Junior College Athletic Associations (NJCAA) Nationals in Florida the past two seasons. She attended Bear Creek High School in Lakewood where she primarily pitched, but also played second and first.
