2016 UNLV Volleyball Weekly Notes - Week Two | UNLV Rebel Challenge Tournament Central | Tickets

LAS VEGAS (UNLVRebels.com) - UNLV volleyball will stay home, once more, to play host to the Rebel Challenge this weekend. The two-day tournament is the second straight hosted by the Scarlet & Gray to open the 2016 season, and it will run Friday, September 2 through Saturday, September 3. Joining UNLV in Las Vegas will be the Cal State Northridge Matadors, Hofstra Pride and Sacramento State Hornets.

The Rebels will face Sacramento State (10:00 am) and Hofstra (7:00 pm) on day one while a bout with CSUN closes out tourney play Saturday (2:00 pm).

UNLV REBEL CHALLENGE SCHEDULE

Friday, September 210:00 am    UNLV vs. Sacramento State12:00 pm    CSUN vs. Hofstra5:00 pm     Sacramento State vs. CSUN7:00 pm     UNLV vs. Hofstra
Saturday, September 311:30 am    Hofstra vs. Sacramento State2:00 pm     UNLV vs. CSUN

TUNE IN, WATCH & LISTEN: Live stats for all six matches of the UNLV Invitational will be provided through a tournament central page that can be found in the "more links" section on the volleyball page of UNLVRebels.com.

Additionally, Saturday's bout between UNLV and CSUN will be streamed live and free of charge via the Mountain West Network in conjunction with Campus Insiders. The video link can be located at UNLVRebels.com/videos.

DESCAMPS, HAMMEL SWEEP WEEKLY AWARDS: Two days after being selected to the UNLV Invitational's All-Tournament Team, Rebel volleyball's Elsa Descamps and Bree Hammel have been named the Mountain West's Offensive and Defensive Players of the Week, respectively. The duo helped the Scarlet & Gray to a perfect 3-0 mark to start the 2016 campaign with victories over UC Santa Barbara, Albany and New Mexico State. This is the second Conference weekly award for Hammel and the first for Descamps.

Descamps, a sophomore from Toulouse, France, led the Rebels with a .441 hitting efficiency and averaged 3.20 kills per set. The middle blocker, who started all three matches and played in a total of 10 sets, hit .400 or better and registered at least 10 kills in each contest, including a career-high 12 in a four-set win over Albany. She also contributed 13.0 total blocks with a career-best six assisted putbacks against NMSU.

Hammel, the UNLV Invitational MVP, paced the Rebels defensively with 3.30 digs and 1.20 blocks per set. The right-side hitter from Las Vegas accumulated 33 digs and 12.0 total blocks on the weekend. She recorded a career-high 22 digs to go along with four assisted blocks in the home opener vs. UCSB. She had a total of 5.0 blocks (two solo) and seven digs against Albany. In the tourney finale against NMSU, she had four digs and 3.0 total blocks. Offensively, she had a total of 44 kills, three assists and a pair of aces. She threw down at least 13 kills in each match, including a weekend-high 17 against Albany.

This is the first instance that UNLV has swept the weekly honors, as the MW added the defensive award to its repertoire last season.

REBELS SWEEP THROUGH UNLV INVITATIONAL: The UNLV volleyball team went 3-0 at last weekend's season-opening tournament - the UNLV Invitational - with wins over UC Santa Barbara (3-0), Albany (3-1) and New Mexico State (3-0).

Albany and NMSU concluded the 2015 campaign atop the America East and Western Athletic Conference standings, respectively, and each were predicted to finish atop the standings this season, as well.

By virtue of her play in the two-day tournament, Bree Hammel was named the UNLV Invitational's MVP. She was joined on the all-tourney team by teammates Elsa Descamps and Alexis Patterson. UCSB's Lindsey Ruddins and Phoebe Grunt, Albany's Nicole Otero and NMSU's Sasha-Lee Thomas rounded out the seven-member squad.

HOME SWEET HOME: UNLV Volleyball has built up a home-court advantage in the Cox Pavilion dating back to the 2014 season finale against the San Diego State Aztecs. Dating back to the 3-1 victory over their Mountain West foe on Nov. 25, the Rebels have played 19 times on its home court and, in turn, won 17 times.

This 19-game stretch began with 11 straight victories from that SDSU affair to a 3-1 win over Utah State on Oct. 29, 2015. Unfortunately, the winning streak came to an end against Boise State two days later (Oct. 31). UNLV managed to conclude the remainder of its home slate with three wins in four contests - the loss was in four sets to Colorado State (Nov. 18).

The Rebels added to the win column last weekend with "W's" over UC Santa Barbara, Albany and New Mexico State.

THREE & OH, KEEP GOING: UNLV Volleyball's 3-0 start to the 2016 campaign marked the sixth instance in program history that it has begun undefeated. This year's feat joined those achieved by the 1979, 1997, 1998, 1999 and 2015 squads.

In fact, four of those perfect starts (1979, 1999, 2015 and 2016) have begun at home.

The 2015 edition reeled off a program-best 10 straight victories to start its season while the '79 and '99 squads won six and four, respectively.