Dec. 3, 2016 Box Score
PROVO, Utah (UNLVRebels.com) - The UNLV volleyball team's season came to a close Saturday night with a 3-0 loss to the No. 10 BYU Cougars in the Second Round of the NCAA Tournament at the Smith Fieldhouse. The Rebels finished the 2016 campaign with a 24-8 overall record while the host Cougars improved to 29-3 and advance to next week's regional semifinals in Austin.
This year's haul of 24 wins sits in a tie with the 2007 squad that also won that same amount. Coincidentally, the 2016 and '07 editions are the only two to make NCAA Tournament appearances in program history.
In the midst of this season that spanned parts of five months, UNLV started a program-best 11-0 which was also the longest undefeated stretch to start a campaign, and those 11 wins coupled with a 2015 end-of-season victory over Fresno State resulted in a program-best 12-match winning streak. Those initial 11 wins and another over No. 22 Utah Friday night helped the team notch a 12-2 mark in non-conference play, and that record as well as its winning percentage (.857) are the best in program lore. The team also received votes for seven straight weeks (September 5 to October 17) in the AVCA's Top 25 Poll. Additionally, head coach Cindy Fredrick recorded her 100th career win at UNLV and later became the winningest coach in program history -- currently owns 114 in six seasons.
The 24 wins were aided by the play of UNLV's senior class -- Natalie Bulen, Bree Hammel, Carly Riehl, Sadie Stutzman, Alyssa Wing and Elisa Woinowsky, which notched a program-best 82 victories in their four-year run as Rebels.
"The seniors have a lot that they've built on and they've set some standards for the team, now, and for the program, and that's what we want to build off of," noted Fredrick. "For these guys (referring to Ashley Owens and Alexis Patterson in post-match interview) to say they now know what it's like, and I've always preached that. We've watched the selection show when we knew we weren't going to be in it. I think that's important because this is when you say `this is where we want to be, this is where we want to go'. They went through it two years ago when we thought we were getting in and we didn't, that was absolute heartbreak. So to watch their faces (this time) was absolutely priceless. I love how my team responded to being in (the tournament)," said Fredrick. "Some teams with their first time in it, they get overwhelmed and blown out that first round. I love the fact that (my players) did not ever say that. They were not happy to just say `we're happy to be here', it was `we're happy to be here and we want to win'."
Hammel concluded her season and career with a double-double that consisted of a team-high 12 kills and 10 digs. She also hit at a team-best .320 efficiency and chipped in four assisted blocks and one assist.
Four other Rebels had at least three kills with Caitlin Wernentin leading this quartet with five. Alexis Patterson added four kills while Esla Descamps and Ashley Owens had three apiece.
Patterson led the team in assists with 26 and also had five digs and three assisted blocks on the defensive side of the net. During the match, she dished out her 3,500th career assist and then twenty more followed.
Owens and Descamps also had a presence at the net with their five and four assisted blocks, respectively. Wernentin registered three digs.
Woinowsky, like Hammel, reached the double-digit mark in digs with 10 of her own.
The Cougars outhit UNLV by .126 points (.286 to .160) with help from an advantages of 26 more kills (56-30) and 27 more attack attempts (133-106); however, they did commit five more errors (18-13) in the bout. The Rebels opened the affair with their best hitting display, a .265 effort; but followed it with a .119 and .100 in the subsequent sets. BYU hit .245 in both the first and second before its offense threw down a .400 clip in the third and final stanza.
"I think you've got to give BYU a lot of credit for the adjustments Heather (Olmstead, BYU's head coach) made," said Fredrick in regards to an 9-1 early hole the Cougars faced in the first set. "They ran away from Bree and their answer was to set the right side and set the middle and they did a really nice job of that. You have to give BYU kudos for that."
The West Coast Conference champions were led by a double-double from Alohi Robins-Hardy who combined a match-high 46 assists with 12 digs. Her offensive contributions helped Roni Jones-Perry to a match-best 17 kills and a .364 hitting efficiency. Their teammate Amy Boswell amassed a match-high .444 average with 14 kills. BYU's Mary Lake had a high of 23 digs.
NOTES: UNLV and BYU met earlier this season in Provo at the BYU/UVU Challenge (September 17), with the match going to the host Cougars in straight sets ... In head-to-head play, BYU owns a 26-6 lead in the series; however, UNLV has won four of the past 11 -- all four came in a five-match span between 2007-08 ... In the career record book, Hammel finished tied for second in assisted blocks (344), third in total blocks (394), fourth in kills (1,097) and seventh in solo blocks (50) and attack attempts (2,636); Riehl finished tied for second in matches played (121), fourth in digs (1,218) and tied for seventh in sets played (414); Patterson, a junior, sits third in assists (3,520); and Owens, a junior, sits eighth in both total blocks (316) and assisted blocks (286) ... In the single-season record book (2016 statistics only), Hammel finished third in both kills (453) and attack attempts (1,199), and sixth in aces (40); Patterson finished fifth in assists (1,258); Descamps finished fourth in both total blocks (198) and assisted blocks (136); and Owens finished 10th in assisted blocks (117).
