Feb. 19, 2014
Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic Tournament Central
2014 UNLV Softball Weekly Notes - Week Three
LAS VEGAS (UNLVRebels.com) - After opening the 2014 campaign with two home tournaments and their first seven games, the UNLV Rebels hit the road this week. UNLV will make its first of six trips to the Golden State beginning with this week's Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic in Cathedral City, Calif. The tournament begins Thursday, Feb. 20 and runs through Sunday, Feb. 23.
The Rebels, who have already faced four nationally ranked squads, will square off against two more teams - #25/25 Texas and #14/14 Arizona - listed in both major softball polls this week.
UNLV opens up with Texas on Thursday at 10:30 pm before having a day off (Friday) in between competition. The Rebels will return to the diamond against UC Davis - a team they've already defeated once this season, 4-3, on Feb. 7 - at 10:00 am and follow that up with a contest against Arizona at 12:30 pm. They close out the tournament with consecutive games against Cal Poly (2:00 pm) and Cal State Northridge (4:30 pm) on Sunday.
NUTTER COLLEGIATE CLASSIC
-UNLV's ScheduleThursday, Feb. 2010:30 am UNLV vs. #25/25 Texas
Saturday, Feb. 1510:00 am UC Davis vs. UNLV12:30 pm #14/14 Arizona vs. UNLV
Sunday, Feb. 1602:00 pm UNLV vs. Cal Poly04:30 pm UNLV vs. Cal State Northridge
Team listed first will occupy the third base dugout & is designated as the home team.
ON DECK: The UNLV Rebels return home for their third and final home tournament of the year with their Eller Media Stadium Classic. UNLV will welcome DePaul, Binghamton, Seton Hall, New Mexico State and Weber State to Las Vegas for the three-day, 15-game event.
Each team will play a total of five games with two scheduled for both Friday and Saturday and a single outing on Sunday.
LOOKING BACK A WEEK: The UNLV Rebels went 1-3 in their own Easton Desert Classic last week. UNLV opened up with a hard-fought, 3-1 loss in 10 innings to then-#10/10 Oregon before it suffered a 6-0 decision to then-#22/24 Minnesota. The Rebels jumped back into the win column with a 7-2 victory over Utah Valley. Unfortunately, the Scarlet & Gray closed out play with a 7-6 loss to Long Beach State in the tournament finale.
The Rebel offense was led by four-hit efforts from both Stefany Valentino and Pauline Monreal. The former went 4-for-12 at the plate for a team-best .333 batting average, while the latter hit .308 with only one more at-bat.
Valentino and Tayler Van Acker paced the team in runs with three each, while Monreal owned three quarters of UNLV's RBI output with eight.
Monreal managed to tie career highs in hits (three), home runs (two ) and RBI (five) in UNLV's win against UVU. She followed that outing up with a three-RBI effort against LBSU.
In the circle, Amanda Oliveto went 1-2 with a win over UVU and two tough losses to Oregon and LBSU. In all, she tossed 20.1 innings and was touched for eight runs (four unearned) off of 11 hits, which equated to a 1.38 ERA.
SEVEN IN THE RANKINGS: Before the first pitch of the 2014 season was thrown, the UNLV Rebels knew their schedule was littered with five teams ranked in both preseason top 25 polls (#3/5 Washington, #8/8 Oregon, #10/10 Texas, #16/13 UCLA and #18/16 Baylor).
UNLV's ranked opponents grew by two when the Feb. 11 polls were released Arizona (#24/22) and Minnesota (#22/24) were included. Both teams had been listed in the "receiving votes" category in the preseason.
Looking ahead, the Rebels have five games against ranked teams beginning with this week's match ups with #25/25 Texas and #14/14 Arizona. UCLA, who has moved up the #8/9, will square off with UNLV on March 7. On March 19, the Rebels will host Arizona in a doubleheader at Eller Media Stadium.
