March 9, 2010
LAS VEGAS -
Week Five Release in PDF Format 
LEADING OFF: The UNLV Rebels stay home for two of their six scheduled games this week. UNLV will host Southern Utah (3-12) in a doubleheader at Eller Media Stadium before hitting the road for the first of four consecutive weekends and the first of three to California.
The Rebels will leave Las Vegas for Long Beach, Calif., and the Long Beach State Invitational (March 12-14). They will face the Purdue Boilermakers, San Diego Toreros, Notre Dame Fighting Irish and Buffalo Bulls at Mayfair Park (5720 Clark Avenue, Lakewood, CA.).
INVITATIONAL SCHEDULE:
Friday, March 1203:45 pm UNLV vs. Purdue
Saturday, March 1301:30 pm UNLV vs. San Diego03:45 pm UNLV vs. Notre Dame
Sunday, March 1401:30 pm UNLV vs. Buffalo
*Team listed first is in the first-base dugout.*Underlined team is designated as the home team.
Long Beach State is the host for the Invitational and will have a tournament page that can be found at LongBeachState.com.
GameTracker available at UNLVRebels.com.
ON DECK: The UNLV Rebels will carry on with their road warrior ways when they head back to Southern California for the Judi Garman Classic (MArch 18-21) hosted by Cal State Fullerton in Fullerton, Calif.
UNLV will play the Purdue Boilermakers, Michigan Wolverines, San Jose State Spartans, Arizona State Sun Devils and the DePaul Blue Demons in the four-day event. LOOKING BACK A WEEK The UNLV Rebels went 3-2 last weekend in their own Eller Media Stadium Classic (March 5-7). The Rebels opened and concluded their five-game schedule with losses, but won three consecutive in the middle.
UNLV began the Classic with hard-fought battle with Portland State that saw the Rebels nearly rally for a victory in the 10-9 loss.
The Rebels then reeled off three straight "W's" with back-to-back, five-inning blankings of Weber State and Portland State before a 9-6 victory over New Mexico State.
In the Classic's final showing, UNLV fell to #13 California by a 5-1 margin in dreary, overcast conditions.
Offensively, the Rebels had seven players register .300 or better batting averages with Laura Briones leading the way with her .500 effort. Jaci Hull hit .471, while leading the squad in runs (7), hits (8) and RBI (8).
In the circle, Jessica O'Connor went 2-1 in four appearances with two complete-game, five-inning shutouts, while tossing 13 consecutive scoreless innings. Traci Odegard went 1-1 in three appearances.
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 book 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 13 of the career marks. Hull sits atop the walks (127) and on-base percentage (.483) categories. She ranks second in runs (160), home runs (43), RBI (149) and slugging percentage (.682). She is third in total bases (398) and hit-by-pitch (18); fourth in doubles (43); fifth in batting average (.356); and sixth in hits (208) and triples (9); and eighth in steals (33).
Marissa Nichols has written her name in 11 of the career categories. Nichols is third in batting average (.369), slugging (.677), on-base (.451) and stolen bases (53). She is fourth in home runs (33) and total bases (341); sixth in runs (135), doubles (38) and triples (9); seventh in walks (69); and 10th in RBI (93).
Kendall Fearn is listed in seven of the categories. Fearn is fifth in walks (76); fifth in slugging (.520); sixth in home runs (30); seventh in RBI (116); eighth in doubles (30); and 10th in on-base (.387) and total bases (277).
Alyssia De La Torre ranks sixth in triples (9) and 10th in slugging (.463).
A HISTORY MAKER: In the previous 28 years of softball at UNLV, no single team had three players with at least 30 career home runs on its roster. Jaci Hull, Marissa Nichols and Kendall Fearn create the trio to achieve this fear.
Hull sits second overall with 43 dingers, while Nichols' and Fearn have 33 and 30, respectively. Nichols ranks fourth to Fearn's 30.
