Sept. 8, 2006
Final Stats
LAS VEGAS - The UNLV volleyball team (5-2) won its third straight match by a 3-0 margin with its win over UC Santa Barbara in the UNLV Invitational Friday evening at the Cox Pavilion. With the win, the Rebels moved their winning streak to three matches. More importantly, the Rebels got off to a good invitational start by winning their first match of their three tournaments this young season. UNLV won by scores of 30-23, 30-24, 30-28.
Games one and two went easily to the Rebels as they won by seven and six points, but the third win was much harder as UCSB fought until the end. UNLV held a seven-point edge at 17-10, but watched UCSB chip away at the deficit to pull even at 23-23. The score was tied twice more at 24-24 and 28-28. Jessica Walters let the Gauchos even things up at 28-28 with an attacking error, but made up for her mistake with a kill one point later. Lauren Miramontes closed the game and match out with a kill of her own.
The Rebels out hit the Gauchos .198 to .142 and held an eight-kill advantage by knocking down 51 kills to UCSB's 43. UNLV held the edge in all three games in hitting percentages by hitting as high as .275 in game one and as low as .114 in game three. UCSB's average declined from the get-go with a .275 in game one, .213 in game two and .114 in game three.
UNLV was led by Brittani Lumsden's match-high 18 kills and her .297 hitting percentage (of players with 10 or more kills). Lumsden came three digs shy of collecting a double-double with seven. Jessica Walters and Maria Aladjova followed Lumsden in double-digits with 12 and 10 kills, respectively. Melody Nua dished out a match-high 42 assists and nine digs. Jada Walker led all players with her 23 digs.
UCSB only had one player register double-digit kills and that was Jamie Garbisch with 14. Kayce Matthess and Stephanie Brandt split the assist duties with their 24 and 13 helpers, respectively. Emily Hendrickson led her team with 15 digs.
The win pushes UNLV to its best seven-match start for a season since 2003's 5-2 opening. In '03, the Rebels lost their firt two and reeled off five straight. The best seven-match opening came in 2000 when the team went 7-0.
The UNLV Invitational continues on Saturday with three matches. The Rebels open up the day at noon against Cal State Northridge and follow it up with a 7 p.m. contest versus Xavier. In between the UNLV matches is a contest between UCSB and Xavier at 2:30 p.m.
