LAS VEGAS (UNLVRebels.com) – The UNLV volleyball team closed out the first weekend of Mountain West play with a come-from-behind 3-1 win over the Utah State Aggies Saturday at the Wayne Estes Center. The Rebels were unable to close out the opening set, but fought back and took the next three to claim the contest behind set scores of 23-25, 25-20, 25-17, 25-23.
With the win, the Scarlet & Gray upped its overall record to 11-3 with a perfect 2-0 mark in the MW. Saturday's triumph also extended the Rebels' current winning streak to eight, and it is the fifth instance a team has reached that number joining the 1998, 2007 (twice) and 2016 squads. USU, on the other hand, had its losing skid extended to four, which dropped the overall record to 2-11 and 0-2 in the MW.
UNLV outhit USU by 147 points (.312 to .165) with help from 18 more kills (62-44) and four fewer errors (17-21) in five more attack attempts (144-139). The Rebels performed their best in the second and fourth frames with .359 (39 attempts) and .412 (34) hitting efficiencies, respectively, backed by 18 kills and four errors in each stanza. In the first and third they hit .242 (14-6-33) and .237 (12-3-38). The Aggies also had their best showing in the fourth with a .310 (13-4-29), but was held to .098 (third set) and .167 (first) in the other three parts of the bout.
The Rebels also owned advantages in assists (59-40), aces (8-6) and digs (63-56), but were outblocked (9.0-5.0)
STAT OF THE GAME: UNLV had a total of 62 kills and all but three came from the quartet of
Mariena Hayden (26 kills),
Jillian Berg (12),
Erin Davis (12) and
Elsa Descamps (nine). Together, the foursome hit .331 (59-15-133).
REBEL OF THE GAME(S): Hayden and Descamps accounted for 29 of the team's 63 digs, with the former having 13 to the latter's 16. Hayden hit .314 and also posted 26 kills, which tied her career and season high, two aces and two assisted blocks. Descamps hit .474 off of nine kills – and zero errors, and added three assisted blocks and one assist.
QUOTABLE: "I feel that we came out a bit sloppy; there wasn't the attention to the details and we didn't take care of the balls that we needed to," said head coach
Dawn Sullivan. "It just looked hard for us. It's a road match and they look tired, but it's no excuse. I think the fact that we came out with the win – a conference one at that – no matter how much we struggled was huge."
REBEL NOTES:
- UNLV snapped a two-match losing skid to USU with Saturday's win and improved its mark to 9-4 in the all-time series.
- UNLV is now 5-2 away from the friendly confines of the Cox Pavilion, with a 3-0 record in true road matches and 2-2 in neutral ones. USU is now 0-5 in home matches at the Estes Center this season.
- UNLV has won 11 of its first 14 matches this season and it's only the fourth time that a squad has won at least 11 of those in program history. The 1998, 2007 and 2014 teams also went 11-3, while the 2017 squad went 13-1.
- With help from her three aces, Hayden extended her lead in UNLV's single-season record book with 57 aces, and inched closer to Leiana Oswald (2000-03) in third, as the former has 100 and needs four more to pull even with the latter at 104.
- Descamps had 11 digs in the match, and it marked the fifth contest with 10 or more this season. In her first three years, she did not have one bout with double digits in digs.
NEXT FOR THE REBELS: UNLV remains on the road for two more matches with stops in Albuquerque, N.M. (vs. New Mexico) and Colorado Springs, Colorado (vs. Air Force) next week on Sept. 26 (Thursday) and 28 (Saturday), respectively.
REBELS BACK HOME: UNLV will not return to play in Las Vegas and the Cox Pavilion until October. The Rebels will host San Jose State on Oct. 4 and follow that with a Governor's Series tilt with UNR two days later (Oct. 6).
