Box Score

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado (UNLVRebels.com) - The UNLV volleyball team used double-doubles from Bree Hammel and Alexis Patterson as well as blistering hitting from Alyssa Wing to sweep the Air Force Falcons Thursday night at Clune Arena. With the 3-0 victory (25-18, 25-21, 25-19), the Rebels conclude the first half of Mountain West action with an 8-1 mark while their overall record improved to 19-2. The Falcons, on the other hand, dropped to 9-13 for the year and 0-9 in Conference play.

With the win, Cindy Fredrick notched her 109th career victory at UNLV, and it pushed her ahead of Allison Keeley (108 wins) as the winningest coach in program history. Over the past three years, Fredrick, who is in the midst of her 30th season, has claimed her 500th career and 500th NCAA Division I victories. Earlier this year, she hit the 100-win milestone with a 3-1 triumph over Utah Valley (September 16).

UNLV outhit Air Force by 139 points (.250 to .111) with help from 16 more kills (45-29) and one fewer error (16-17) in only eight more attack attempts (116-108). The Rebels began the bout with their best hitting display, a .324 efficiency (17-6-34) in set one; however, they followed with .255 and .171 efforts in the second and third frames, respectively. The hosts combined to hit at a .154 clip over the first two stanzas before a .000 efficiency followed in the third.

"We played better tonight with Alyssa leading the way on offense and Bree and Alexis on digs," said Fredrick. "We served well tonight, and we were able to keep them out of system, which helped our defense. It was nice to not go five sets for a change!"

The Scarlet & Gray broke open a 4-all tie with three straight points and then built a healthy lead over the Falcons en route to a seven-point win, 25-18, in the first set. The third was similar to the first; in that, UNLV pulled away for the win with help from two kills that sparked a 12-6 run and broke a 13-all deadlock.

The second set was one that showed UNLV's mettle after the Falcons struck out to a seven-point lead at 10-3, and later reached the 20-point mark first holding a six-point edge, 20-14. The Rebels; however, managed to rattle off an 11-1 outburst to rally and flip that deficit into a four-point advantage in a 25-21 win. Included in that final spurt was a string of seven straight points won by UNLV after the Falcons had hit 21.

Hammel led all attackers with a match-high 13 kills and added 10 digs -- a team high -- to achieve her eighth double-double of the season, six of which have occurred in the last seven matches. She also chipped in one assist, one ace and one assisted block.

Patterson notched her team-best 10th double-double of the year with a combination of a match-best 33 assists and 10 digs. She helped out on both sides of the net with three kills and three assisted blocks.

Wing threw down a season- and career-high .688 hitting efficiency that was backed by 11 kills and no errors in 16 swings. Defensively, she registered three digs and three assisted blocks.

Ashley Owens and Elsa Descamps led the Rebel block with six and four total blocks apiece, respectively. The former had one solo and five assisted stuffs to go along with four kills while the latter's were all assisted. Descamps also had seven kills off .294 hitting.

The Falcons got a team-high eight kills from Piper Heineck. Sarah Hellman led the squad in assists with 24. Denise Ssozi and Savannah Banyai tied for the team lead in digs with 13 each.

The Rebels remain on the road, once more, for a Saturday matinee (2:00 pm MT/1:00 pm PT) with the Boise State Broncos. The match will be the 12th in a span of 16 matches that UNLV will have played away from the Cox Pavilion and Las Vegas since September 9. The Scarlet & Gray returns home next week with contests against San Jose State (October 27) and Fresno State (October 29).