Nov. 16, 2007
Final Stats
SALT LAKE CITY - The 25th ranked UNLV Rebels had its 10-match winning streak snapped in Salt Lake City, Utah Friday night by the Utah Utes. The Rebels fell to 21-4 overall on the year and 12-3 in the Mountain West Conference with the 3-1 loss (29-31, 30-26, 24-30, 18-30). UNLV was unable to take advantage of the gift handed to them by TCU on Thursday night when the Horned Frogs upset the 17th-ranked Colorado State Rams by a 3-2 margin. If UNLV would have beaten Utah the Rebels would have owned at least a share of the MWC regular season crown. Instead, CSU and UNLV will head into their respective final regular season matches with identical 12-3 marks.
The loss by UNLV extends Utah's reign over the Rebels in Salt Lake City. Utah has won 10 straight over UNLV dating back to 1997. Those 10 wins include nine consecutive in Mountain West Conference action.
Utah out-hit UNLV by a .302 to .144 margin. The Utes hit above the .300 mark in three of the four games. Utah smacked .441 in the match-clinching fourth game. They tallied .306 (game one) and .400 (game two) figures in earlier games. They were held to a game-low of .125 in UNLV's game-two win.
UNLV, on the other hand, hit at or below .220 in all four frames. The team's peaked at .220 in game three. They hit .205 in the first game and followed that with a .138 hitting efficiency in their game-two win. In the decisive fourth frame the team hit a lowly .000.
The Rebels were led by Melody Nua's ninth double-double of the season. Nua combined a match-high 43 assists and 12 digs to notch the feat. She hit .455 to lead the team, as she threw down six kills in 11 attempts.
On the attacking side of the ball, Maria Aladjova and Lauren Miramontes led the team in offensively with their 19 and 13 kills, respectively. Miramontes, also, contributed eight blocks (three solo) to lead the team in that category.
Defensively, UNLV had three players register double-digits in digs. Camille Cunningham led all Rebels with 19, while Jada Walker followed closely behind with 17. Nua joined the pair with her 12.
Utah got double-doubles from Stephanie Shardlow, Keisha Fisher and Kate Robison. Shardlow and Fisher used their assist and dig tallies for the statistic, while Robison combined kills and digs. Shardlow led the Utes in assists with 33 and was one of four with double-digit digs (11). Fisher trailed Shardlow closely in assists with 31 of her own, but bested her teammate in digs with 12. Robison was one of five on her squad to hit 10 or more kills, as she knocked down 15 and picked up 13 digs.
Whitney Webb led the Utes in kills with her 17, while Kathryn Haynie was one behind with 16. Haynie hit a match-high .467 with only two errors in 30 attempts. Karolina Barkowiak and Lori Baird rounded out the five Utes with double-digit kills, as they had 11 and 10, respectively.
Connie Dangerfield tallied a match-high 29 digs for Utah, while being joined by Shardlow, Fisher and Robison in the double-digit dig category.
UNLV will travel to Provo, Utah down I-15 from Salt Lake City for its match Saturday night against the BYU Cougars. It will be the final regular season match for both squads and is scheduled for a 6:00 pm PT first serve. BYU defeated San Diego State on Friday night and improved to 11-4 in the MWC and trail CSU and UNLV by one match.
