LAS VEGAS (UNLVRebels.com) – The UNLV volleyball team was unsuccessful in its first two matches against the Fresno State Bulldogs this season; however, the Rebels proved the idiom 'the third time's a charm' true with a five-set victory Friday night over their Mountain West foe from the Golden State.
The Scarlet & Gray (21-11), which had lost twice by identical 3-1 scores to the Bulldogs (22-11) this season, claimed the National Invitational Volleyball Championship's Second Round match by set scores of 25-19, 16-25, 25-21, 22-25, 15-7. With the win, UNLV will travel to Portland, Oregon, to face the West Coast Conference's Portland Pilots (20-12) Thursday at 7:00 pm. The Pilots advanced to the third round with a 3-0 win over Northern Colorado and a 3-2 triumph over Utah Valley, respectively, the past two days.
In Friday's bout, the Rebels outhit the 'Dogs by 44 points (.190 to .146) with help from five fewer errors (24-29) in nine fewer attack attempts (142-151), while both threw down 51 kills. UNLV posted better hitting efficiencies in four of the five frames, and topped out with a .419 – its best effort – in the first. The home side's averages dropped below .100 in both the second and third before it notched .237 and .364 clips in the fourth and fifth, respectively. FS hit .216 or better in three sets, but was forced into negative figures in the third (-.029) and fifth (-.105) sets – both of which the team lost.
The Rebels doubled up the Bulldogs at the service line, 12-6, and also held slight advantages in assists (49-47) and digs (61-58). FS was able to notch one more total team block (11.0-10.0).
REBEL SUPERLATIVE: UNLV's
Mariena Hayden aced three serves against the Bulldogs, and upped her NCAA-leading tally to 101. Hayden is only the third player to reach triple digits in NCAA Division I since the 25-point scoring format was adopted in 2008.
TURNING POINT: Trailing by one through the first seven points of the fifth set at 4-3, UNLV rattled off a five-point run that featured a pair of aces by
Antonette Rolda, a kill by
Thea Sweder and a pair of attack errors by the Bulldogs. Ultimately, the Rebels won 12 of the final 15 points in the decisive frame to claim the match, and four of UNLV's seven points down the stretch were via FS errors.
QUOTABLE: "We came in and we were just going to battle," said head coach
Dawn Sullivan. "I think, the serve and pass is always the game for us. When we played them before we missed a lot of serves and gave them a lot of free points, and we really tried to control that this match."
On what it means to play in the postseason: "I think it's huge for this team; just to even get here was huge. The fan support has been great, and then to step on the court and feel that nervous energy and to feel that uneasiness; when you lose that second set the way you do, can you respond the right way. I think all of those things are really good things that we're seeing from this team. They're growing, each and every time they step on the court. I'm really proud of them and what they're becoming.
STAT OF THE GAME: UNLV's offense primarily ran through its outside hitters, Hayden and Sweder, who combined for 32 of the team's 51 kills (63 percent) as well as 86 of the 142 attack attempts (61 percent). The duo also accounted for half of the Rebels' errors (12 of 24).
STAT OF THE GAME, PART TWO: UNLV had five different players record at least one ace in the match, as the squad had 12 overall. Rolda had a match-best four aces, while Hayden added three of her own.
Elsa Descamps and
Lauryn Burt had two each. FS, on the other hand, only had six aces.
REBEL OF THE GAME: Hayden had a match-high 18 kills to go along with a match-high-tying 19 digs that helped produce her 18th double-double of the season and 28th of her career. Additionally, she had three aces, two assisted blocks and one assist.
REBEL NOTES:
-UNLV is 1-1 all-time against its NIVC Third Round opponent, Portland: 3-2 loss in Portland on Sept. 1, 2012 and 3-0 win in Las Vegas on Aug. 31, 2013.
-UNLV reclaimed a slight edge in the head-to-head series with Fresno State, as the former leads 11-10.
-UNLV's win snapped a four-match losing skid to Fresno State that began with a sweep of the 2017 season series.
-UNLV is 3-2 all-time in postseason competition with a 1-2 mark in two trips to the NCAA Tournament (2007: 0-1 and 2016: 1-1).
-UNLV has only won 21 or more matches six times, and 2018's mark only trails 2014's 26, 2007 and 2016's 24, and 1984 and 1998's 23.
-UNLV's .656 winning percentage this season is the sixth best in program history, and trails 2007's .800 (24-6), 2014's .787 (26-7), 2016's .750 (24-8), 1998's .742 (23-8) and 2006's .667 (20-10).
-UNLV has had 10.0 or more total team blocks in three straight matches after only having three through the first 28 contests this season.
-UNLV is 6-3 in Friday matches.
-UNLV is 3-2 in five-set matches.
-UNLV is 20-3 when its offense registers a higher hitting efficiency.
-UNLV is 1-1 when its offense registers the same amount of kills as its opponent, and both occurrences came in the last three matches this season – at Wyoming (57-57/Nov. 17).
-UNLV is 18-0 when its offense registers fewer errors than its opponent.
-With her 18 kills, Hayden has 515 for the year, which are the second most in UNLV's single-season records. She trails Lauren Miramontes' 521 from 2007 for first place.
-With her 48 attack attempts, Hayden has 1,228 on the year, which are the second most in UNLV's single-season records. She surpassed Miramontes' 1,216 (2007) and Bree Hammel's 1,199 (2016) during Friday's match.
- Descamps has played in 415 sets in her career at UNLV, which are the seventh most in UNLV's career records. She surpassed three former Rebels that sat deadlocked in seventh with 414.
-With her five total blocks, Descamps cemented her placement in UNLV's career record book: third in solo blocks (439), third in assisted blocks (377) and sixth in solo blocks (62).
-Sweder's 14 kills tied a career- and season-high.
