FORT COLLINS, Colo. (UNLVRebels.com) – The UNLV volleyball team (4-0) completed the season sweep of the Colorado State Rams (3-3) with a come-from-behind, 3-1 victory (23-25, 25-21, 25-21, 25-20) Saturday afternoon at Moby Arena.
 
This week's matchup featured the two squads picked to finish first and second atop the Mountain West's Preseason Coaches Poll, with the Rebels toppling the favorited Rams, who have won the conference the past three seasons and 10 of the last 11, twice on the road.
 
In a bit of an oddity, the Scarlet & Gray opened the contest hitting a team-best .306 in the first set; however, it was CSU which came away with the opening frame, 25-23, behind its lowly .088 effort. UNLV turned things around after the first, winning the second, third and fourth sets despite hitting .233, .189 and .240, respectively. CSU, meanwhile, improved its hitting efficiencies – albeit slightly – the remainder of the match, but stayed within the .100s - .107, .115 and .130 – the rest of the affair.
 
The Rebels held the edge in nearly every statistical category, once again, with 11 more kills (58-47), 10 fewer errors (18-28), one more attack attempt (169-168), 15 more assists (56-41), four more digs (84-80) and 8.0 more total team blocks (13.0-5.0).
 
Shelby Capllonch and Mariena Hayden paced UNLV with double-doubles, and combined to register 53 percent of the team's kills and 46 percent of the team's digs. The former threw down 14 kills with a team- and career-high 27 digs, while the latter recorded a match-high 17 digs to go along with 12 digs.
 
Additionally, Macy Smith and Erin Davis provided 15 kills between the two of them and, more impressively, were responsible for 5.0 total team blocks (one solo, eight assisted).
 
Besides the 50 assists coming from setters Lauryn Burt and Arien Fafard, the duo also provided four kills and four aces offensively as well as 13 digs on the defensive side.
 
TURNING POINT: After losing a tightly contested opener which it led by one as late at the 22-21 mark, the Rebels were able to draw even in the second after they outscored the Rams 6-2, following a 19-all tie. The third and fourth sets were both played closely between the two squads up until the midway point when UNLV pulled away with 6-0 and 9-1 runs, respectively. In the third, the 6-0 stretch turned a 15-13 deficit into an insurmountable four-point lead at 19-15. The 9-1 run in the fourth and final frame began when UNLV trailed by four at 12-8, but five kills by Hayden, one by Kate Brennan and three CSU errors pushed the Rebels ahead by four, 17-13, en route to the five-point win, 25-20.
 
REBEL NOTES:
-Dating back to the 2019 campaign, UNLV has won 20 of its last 22 matches – the best run through 22 matches in program history.
-With Saturday's win, UNLV improved to 4-0 for only the fifth time in program history: 1979, 1998, 1999, 2016 and Spring 2021.
-After sweeping the two-match season series, UNLV has nine wins in a total of 51 meetings against CSU.
-UNLV has now won back-to-back matches against CSU three times: Nov. 19, 1998 (home: 3-1) and Oct. 16, 1999 (home: 3-1); Oct. 27, 2007 (home: 3-0) and Oct. 16, 2008 (home: 3-1); and Feb. 18, 2021 (away: 3-0) and Feb. 20, 2021 (away: 3-1).
-With their double-doubles Saturday, Capllonch has four for the year and 19 for her career, while Hayden picked up her second of 2021 and 48th overall.
-With help from her 17 kills Saturday, Hayden now has 1,326 for her career, and is only 24 shy of tying Leiana Oswald's 1,350 (2000-03) for third place in the program's all-time record book.
-With the addition of her 50 attack attempts Saturday, Hayden now has 3,574 for her career, and is only 81 shy of tying Lauren Miramontes' 3,655 (2003-07) for third all-time.
-With 26 assists Saturday, Lauryn Burt broke the 1,000-assist mark. To date, the setter has 1,012 for her career and is only 40 shy of tying Amanda Alles' 1,052 (2008-11) for 10th all-time.
 
UP NEXT: UNLV returns home for a two-match series Friday and Saturday against the Boise State Broncos at the Cox Pavilion. First serve for both contests is slated for 6:30 pm.
 
will face Colorado State, once again, at Moby Arena Saturday at 11:00 am PT (12:00 pm PT).