RENO, Nev. - The Nevada volleyball team picked up two more wins on Friday with victories over Southern Utah in a thrilling five set match and then a sweep of Gonzaga. The Pack is now 9-2 on the season, which ties the best start to the season since 2002 when Nevada was also 9-2.
Nevada took sets one, four and five from Southern Utah; 25-23, 20-25, 21-25, 25-19 and 15-8 before sweeping Gonzaga in three straights sets, 25-21, 26-24 and 25-16.
In both matches, Nevada held the opponent to below a .130 hitting percentage and did not allow more than eight total blocks on the night. Nevada however combined for 24 total blocks.
A few highlights from the night came from none other than
Kayla Afoa,
Sydney Petersen and
Dalyn Burns. Afoa had yet another double-double against Southern Utah with 17 kills and 20 digs while
Kili Robins was the only other Pack member to have double digits kills with 13. Petersen had nine block assists in the Southern Utah match and four against Gonzaga to lead the team in both.
Freshman
Mandalay Rennon recorded a service ace against Gonzaga along with her seven digs and against Southern Utah tallied 11 digs for a season high. Joining Rennon was
Brianna Souza who tied her season high in blocks against Southern Utah with eight.
The Southern Utah match came down to the deciding set, the fifth and final set of the match. Nevada won the coin toss and went on a 3-0 run to open the set with
Ryan Blackwood back at the service line. The Pack was leading 10-6 when the Thunderbirds put together a string of points to close the gap, 10-8 but head coach
Lee Nelson called a timeout and the Pack pulled the last four points out and won the match, 3-2.
In the match against Gonzaga, Nevada won the first point in each of the three sets. To go along with that, the Pack never trailed in both the first and third sets and were only ever down by one on three occasions in the second set. In the third and final set against the Zags, Rennon was at the service line for a 4-0 run that started it off and then a service ace from Blackwood put the Pack up 6-1 early on. The score at one point was 20-13 before the Zags called a timeout but Nevada kept the pedal going and finished out 25-15.
Tomorrow Nevada wraps up the Nevada Invitational with a single match against California Baptist, who also won both of its matches today at 1:30 pm PT in Virginia Street Gym.
