The University of Nevada (1-1) volleyball team fell to 1-1 on the season after dropping a four set match 3-1 to UC Irvine (3-0) by scores of 21-25, 25-20, 19-25 and 16-25 on day two of the Courtyard Marriott/Fairfield Invitational at the Virginia Street Gym Saturday night. With the victory the Anteaters completed play in the tournament with at 3-0 record and have sealed the championship with one day of action remaining.
In the first match today UCI defeated Saint Mary’s 3-2 and in match two Cal defeated Connecticut 3-1. Nevada plays Saint Mary’s (1-1) at 1:00 p.m. tomorrow while #6 Cal (1-1) takes on Connecticut (0-3) at 10:00 a.m.
In set one UCI jumped to a 10-5 advantage and held on for a 25-21 victory. The Anteaters hit .297 and Nevada .294 in set one.
The Pack took control of set two early building a 7-2 advantage but UCI battled back to tie the score at 19-19. A 6-1 run closed out the set as Nevada won 25-20 to even the match at one set apiece. Nevada hit .300 in the set while UCI hit .185.
Nevada trailed most of set three but pulled within a point at 19-18 before UCI used a 6-1 run of its own to win the set 25-19. The Anteaters hit .294 and held the Pack to a .152 attack percentage.
With set four tied at 10-10 UCI scored 15 of the next 21 points to win the set 25-16 and take the match 3-1. The Anteaters had their best hitting set of the night at .433 while Nevada hit .235.
Junior Kylie Harrington led the Pack with 11 kills while Lindsay Baldwin and Jorgan Staker had 10 each. Setters Sonnie Sei and Tatiana Santiago dished out 25 and 21 assists respectively. Libero Nicole Link topped the Pack with 16 digs.
Kari Pestolesi and Alexandra Hauser had 16 and 11 kills respectively for UCI. Setter Taryn Robertston dished out a match-high 44 assists. Pestolesi posted a double-double as she finished with a match-high 21 digs while libero Kristin Winkler totaled 14.
UCI hit .305 in the match and Nevada .244. Both teams had six blocks on the night. Baldwin had four for Nevada and Taylor Smith five for the Anteaters.
