Rebels volleyball spiked in NCAAs

LOS ANGELES — In its first appearance in the NCAA Women’s Volleyball Tournament, UNLV positioned itself within five points of defeating one of the nation’s perennial powers.

The Rebels had rallied to win the second and fourth games against Long Beach State, then overcame a four-point deficit to force a tie in the fifth game.

But the 49ers scored the necessary five points in succession for a 30-20, 28-30, 30-27, 23-30, 15-10 victory Friday at Southern California’s Galen Center.

“It was a great match,” UNLV coach Allison Keeley said. “Sure, we’re disappointed in the loss, but I felt that we played well. We just didn’t get a couple of breaks in the fifth game.”

Middle blocker Lauren Miramontes said she thought the Rebels (24-6) had a chance to do more against the 25th-ranked 49ers.

“They’re definitely beatable,” Miramontes said. “We knew we could’ve pulled it out.”

Long Beach (26-6), making its 20th consecutive NCAA appearance, entered the tournament with a 12-match winning streak and a victory over formerly eighth-ranked Florida in its regular-season finale Nov. 24.

“Definitely in the first game, I could feel amongst the other girls a little bit of apprehension,” Miramontes said. “But I think as we got to play and got into a little bit of rhythm, we just forgot about the crowd and started to play our game.”

UNLV and Long Beach tied the score of the second game nine times and exchanged the lead six times before the 49ers went ahead, 28-25. But the Rebels scored the final five points, with Erin Greenwood getting two of them.

The Rebels relied on Greenwood to score off quick sets from Melody Nua as UNLV re-oriented its attack toward the middle after the first game. Greenwood finished with 15 kills.

“Erin was getting up there, and she was definitely a threat,” said Miramontes, who led the Rebels with 19 kills. “They weren’t expecting us to run our middles. They were expecting us to shoot (the balls) outside.”

Then in the fourth game, UNLV turned a 15-11 deficit into a 25-20 advantage. Long Beach’s hitting errors accounted for six of the Rebels’ points during their 14-5 surge.

The 49ers narrowed the deficit to 26-23 before Miramontes’ tip, Maria Aladjova’s block, Greenwood’s kill off a quick set and another hitting error forced a fifth game. Long Beach hit .153 for the match.

“Our confidence was building because we saw that they’re just another team,” Miramontes said. “They make mistakes just like everybody else.”

The 49ers took a 9-5 lead in the final game, but the Rebels forced a 10-all tie on Jada Walker’s service ace. Greenwood led the rally with two kills off quick sets.

Michaela Hasalikova broke the tie with a cross-court kill. Two hitting errors gave the 49ers two more points. Alexis Grimes blocked an attempted kill from UNLV’s Jessica Walters. Then Nicole Vargas served an ace to end the match.

For Walters, the 49ers’ defense proved pivotal.

“Long Beach dug a lot of balls that normally go down against other teams,” Walters said. “Even on some serves that should’ve been aces, they’re still scrapping and bringing (the ball) back.”