Box Score

FORT COLLINS, Colorado (UNLVRebels.com) - The UNLV volleyball team lost a 3-2, nail-biter to the Colorado State Rams Thursday night at Moby Arena. The Rebels (21-4 overall, 10-3 Mountain West) rallied from a 2-1 deficit to force the decisive fifth set only to see the host Rams (16-7, 10-2 MW) win eight of the match's final 11 points for the win.

With Thursday's outcome, UNLV fell to third in the MW while CSU moved into second -- merely by percentage points .833 to .769. Boise State (11-2) maintained its lead in league play after a 3-0 win over Utah State. Wyoming, the Rebels' Saturday opponent, maintained its spot in fourth (9-3) after its 3-1 win against New Mexico.

"This one stings," said head coach Cindy Fredrick, the winningest coach in program history. "We played a great match and really just lost it when Colorado State got to 12 in the fifth. Alexis (Patterson) had a great match offensively and setting. Bree (Hammel) and Alyssa (Wing) hit well tonight, and our three defensive specialists played good defense. We just didn't finish the fifth set we gave away three points at the end."

UNLV and CSU fought back and forth in the fifth that featured two lead changes and seven ties in the first 14 points; however, the latter used a 3-0 run to break a 7-all deadlock. The Rebels managed to pull within one point three times (10-9, 11-10 and 12-11) down the stretch, but the Rams pulled away with another 3-point run of the set.

The Rebels hit .275 in the match with help from a .341 efficiency in the first set and a .412 clip in the fourth. They opened the bout with 18 kills against three errors in 41 swings, but followed that with .162 (13-7-37) and .229 (14-6-35) efforts in the second and third, respectively. They turned things around in the must-win fourth with the .412 showing (17-3-34). In the fifth, they hit .208 (8-3-24).

The Rams, on the other hand, hit .317 overall and .256 or better in each frame. They threw down two fewer kills (68-70) and attempted 10 fewer attempts (161-171), and their hitting was greatly aided by the attackers only committing 17 errors to UNLV's 23. Their lowest hitting numbers were in the first (.256) and fourth (.257) while the top two came in the second (.469) and fourth (.346).

Bree Hammel paced the Rebel offense with a double-double that consisted of a season- and career-high tying 23 kills and 12 digs. With help from those 23 kills, the Las Vegas native became the seventh player in program history to break the 1,000-kill barrier, and she now has 1,010 for her career -- one shy of Madeline Westman, who is in sixth place in the career record book (1,011). She also contributed three assists and three assisted blocks in the match.

Besides Hammel, UNLV got double-digits in kills from Alyssa Wing (16) and Sadie Stutzman (10). The former added three digs, one assist and one assisted blocks; the latter chipped in six digs, two assisted blocks and one assist.

Alexis Patterson threw down nine kills of her own off a team-best .562 hitting efficiency, and also contributed 50 assists, seven digs and two assisted blocks.

Defensively, the Rebels had a trio of players register double figures in digs with a team-high 17 from Elisa Woinowsky and 10 more from Laura Butler. At the net, Elsa Descamps led all with five assisted blocks to go along with eight kills. Ashley Owens had four total blocks (one solo).

CSU got hot hitting from both Kirstie Hilyer (18 kills/.533) and Alexandra Poletto (15/.448) while Jasmine Hanna had 13 kills, too. Katie Oleksak had a match-best 57 assists for the Rams, who had a foursome record 10 or more digs, including 23 from Cassidy Denny.

UNLV will head north to Laramie, Wyoming, for its next match, an 1:00 pm MT (12:00 pm PT) affair at the UniWyo Sports Complex against the Cowgirls. The Scarlet & Gray returns to Las Vegas and the Cox Pavilion for a battle with Utah State on November 10 (6:00 pm).

NOTES: With her participation in Thursday's match, Carly Riehl moved into a tie for seventh in career matches played (114) with Lauren Miramontes (2003-07) ... Hammel moved into 10th place in career total attempts (2,397) with her 50 swings.