UNLV Volleyball: Team presses on without star

Steve Carp

Friday, Sept. 19, 1997 | 9:02 a.m.

Is there life after Angie Sylvas?

The question has a one-sided answer as far as UNLV volleyball coach Deitre Collins is concerned.

She has lost her star outside hitter and leading scorer to a season-ending knee injury and the entire Western Athletic Conference season remains to be played, not to mention a pair of weekend matches at Lied Gymnasium Saturday against Central Florida and Sunday vs. Louisiana State. Both matches begin at 1 p.m.

"There has to be," Collins said in answering the question of life after Sylvas. "The good thing was we were able to beat New Mexico State and San Francisco without Angie. With her, maybe we could have been more competitive against Arizona."

The Cimarron-Memorial product tore the anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee during the early stages of the New Mexico State match last week.

Collins and her staff have spent the week trying to figure out how to fill the vacancy. Green Valley's Staci Smith has moved into Sylvas' right outside hitter spot and freshman Justine Kamelamela played very well on the left side.

"Fortunately for us, we have some depth and we're looking to see how to use it to our advantage," Collins said.

At 7-2, UNLV has already exceeded last year's win total of five. But Collins said from a momentum standpoint, this weekend is extremely important. UNLV opens WAC play with three straight road games at Colorado State, Wyoming and Hawaii, so the Central Florida and LSU matches are big.

"We're going to have to go the rest of the way without Angie so it's important that we prove to ourselves we can win without her," Collins said. "It would give us some added confidence going into the WAC if we can win this weekend."