Feb. 24, 2010
LAS VEGAS -
Week Three Release in PDF Format 
LEADING OFF: After playing their first 10 games at home in Las Vegas, the UNLV Rebels will hit the road for the first time in 2010 this weekend. UNLV will head to the California desert for their sixth trip to the Cathedral City Classic (Feb. 26-28).
The Rebels will play five games in a three-day time frame. They open up with Cal Poly (10:00 am) and #24/19 Texas A&M (3:00 pm) on Friday. They will play once on Saturday with an 8:00 pm tilt with Fordham. They close out the tournament with games against #10/12 Stanford (11:00 am) and Long Island (1:00 pm) on Sunday.
Oregon State is the host for the Cathedral City Classic and information can be found at PalmSpringsSoftballClassic.com and OSUBeavers.com.
GameTracker information can be found at www.UNLVRebels.com.
ON DECK: The UNLV Rebels will host its third and final tournament of 2010 with the Eller Media Stadium Classic (March 5-7).
UNLV will welcome Portland State, Weber State, New Mexico State, California and Southern Utah to Las Vegas.
The Rebels will play Portland State twice with single meetings against Weber State, New Mexico State and California.
Southern Utah and UNLV will not play during the EMS Classic, as the pair will face each other in a doubleheader on March 10 (2:00 pm) instead.
LOOKING BACK A WEEK: The UNLV Rebels went 3-2 last weekend at their own Louisville Slugger Desert Classic. UNLV played four games to only five innings with wins in three of them. The Rebels defeated Boise State and San Diego before losing to Hawai'i and Northwestern. They finished on a good note with a win over Indiana.
UNLV began the tournament with back-to-back, five-inning wins over Boise State (Feb. 18) and San Diego (Feb. 19) with identical 11-3 scores. The wins extended the Rebels' winning streak to six games.
Unfortunately, that was as far as the streak would go as UNLV lost consecutive contests to Hawai'i (11-0 in five) and #21/21 Northwestern (8-0 in seven).
The Rebels rebounded from their first losing streak with a resounding 13-2, five-inning win over Indiana on the final day of action.
STAYING CLASSY: Marissa Nichols has been named a candidate for the 2010 Lowe's Senior CLASS Award, which honors senior student-athletes who excel both on and off the field. Nichols is one of 30 NCAA Division I softball players up for the award that recognizes notable achievements in four areas of excellence - classroom, character, community and competition.
Nichols, who is in her sixth year at UNLV, has overcome numerous injuries and setbacks since her All-American freshman campaign in 2005. Nichols nearly re-wrote the UNLV single-season record books in her first year, as she set new marks in runs, hits, home runs, total bases and stolen bases, while finishing highly in batting average, doubles, triples, RBI, slugging percentage and on-base percentage. Besides being selected as an All-Mountain West Conference honoree, she set the league record for Player of the Week selections with six. She was tabbed UNLV's Sports Woman of the Year in 2005.
After missing nearly 2.5 years of action, she returned to the field in 2009 for another all-conference performance. She led the Rebels in walks, stolen bases and game-winning runs, while finishing second or third in home runs, total bases, slugging percentage, runs, hits and doubles.
An acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in SchoolTM, the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award focuses on the total student-athlete and encourages students to use their platform in athletics to make a positive impact as leaders in their communities.
The 30 candidates will be narrowed to 10 finalists midway through the regular season, and those 10 names will be placed on the official ballot. Ballots will be distributed through a nationwide voting system to media, coaches and fans, who will select one finalist who best exemplifies excellence in the four Cs of classroom, character, community and competition.
THE EVER-CHANGING BOOK: The UNLV Rebels have four players that with each hit, run and/or RBI have their placement in the program's record book altered.
Jaci Hull has her name etched in 12 of the career marks. Hull sits atop the walks (124) nd on-base percentage (.485) categories. She ranks second in runs (151), home runs (41), RBI (141) and slugging percentage (.679). She is third in total bases (362) and hit-by-pitch (18); fourth in doubles (42); fifth in batting average (.354); seventh in hits (195); and 10th in triples (7).
Marissa Nichols has written her name in 10 of the career categories. Nichols is third in four charts:batting average (.372), slugging (.677), on-base (.451) and stolen bases (53). She is fifth in home runs (30); sixth in runs (127), doubles (36), triples (9) and total bases (302); and ninth in walks (63).
Kendall Fearn is listed in five of the categories. Fearn is fifth in slugging (.523), walks (73); sixth in home runs (29); seventh in RBI (107); and 10th in on-base (.390).
Alyssia De La Torre ranks seventh in triples (9) and 10th in slugging (.476).
