Oct. 8, 2016 Box Score
LAS VEGAS (UNLVRebels.com) - The UNLV volleyball team came out on the wrong side of a contest that featured the Mountain West's final two unbeaten squads Saturday afternoon. The Rebels (16-2 overall, 5-1 MW) fell behind early to the Colorado State Rams (11-5, 5-0 MW), but fought back with a win in the third set to force a fourth frame. Unfortunately, it was the Rams that walked out of the Cox Pavilion with the 3-1 victory behind set scores of 25-16, 25-14, 14-25, 25-21.
The loss was the first by the Scarlet & Gray at home, and it snapped the team's 10-match win streak that began with a 3-1 triumph over the Fresno State Bulldogs that concluded the 2015 campaign. The remaining nine victories in this stretch had taken place in the Cox Pavilion this season.
"We struggled getting our offense going today," said head coach Cindy Fredrick. "In the third set, we were able to run our middles a lot more and that made a big difference. Alyssa (Wing) and Ashley (Owens) played well today offensively. It was a tough loss, but we know what we need to do and we'll come back strong."
The Rams outhit the Rebels by 177 points (.371 to .194) with help from nine more kills (56-47) and 10 fewer errors (13-23) in eight fewer attack attempts (116-124). It took awhile for UNLV's offense to heat up, and it did in a major way in the third set with a .517 showing (18-3-29). In the three remaining stanzas, the hosts put up .111 (first), .167 (second) and .029 (fourth) efforts. The Fort Collins, Colorado squad, on the other hand, hit a staggering .622 -- with only one error against 34 kills in 53 swings -- combined over the first and second sets. CSU was only able to muster up a .074 clip (7-5-27) in its third-set loss to the Rebels; however, its attackers rebounded with a .222 in the fourth.
Alyssa Wing and Sadie Stutzman paced the Rebel offense with 15 and 12 kills, respectively. The former hit at a .344 clip and also added three digs, two assisted blocks and one assist to the latter's .242 hitting and two digs.
Ashley Owens led the squad with a .375 efficiency and had nine kills and three total blocks (one solo).
Alexis Patterson dished out a team-high 38 assists and chipped in seven digs and a pair of kills.
Elisa Woinowsky was tops in digs for the Rebels with 10 while Laura Butler and Bree Hammel added six apiece.
The Rams had four of their own record double figures in kills, and Sanja Cizmic led all in the bout with 13. Both Jasmine Hanna and Alexandra Poletta had 12 while Kirstie Hillyer rounded out the foursome with 10. Katie Oleksak notched a match-high 48 assists to go with four assisted blocks, three digs and three kills. Cassidy Denny and Amanda Young recorded 18 and 10 digs, respectively.
UNLV returns to the Cox Pavilion for a pair of Conference matches on October 27 (San Jose State/6:00 pm) and 29 (Fresno State/3:00 pm). Prior to those contests, the Rebels will play four straight in four different states beginning with Tuesday's affair at New Mexico (6:30 MT/5:30 PT) which will be followed by a tilt at Utah State four days later (Oct. 15).
