Rebels look for fresh start under new coach Alameda

Nick Christensen

Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2004 | 9:45 a.m.

It might have been only an exhibition game, but it meant everything.

For the seventh year, UNLV's softball team played against the school's formidable alumni as a prelude to the start of the season. But this year the Rebels did something differernt.

They won.

The symbolism saturated Eller Media Stadium. All the alumni played for Shan McDonald, the longtime UNLV softball coach who was let go in May after a 17-39 season. Many played for UNLV during McDonald's glory days, the mid-1990s when the team made two appearances in the College World Series.

Enter Lonni Alameda, an eight-year assistant coach at Stanford who was hired as UNLV's head coach in July. Where many say that McDonald had lost her spirit for coaching, this year's team under Alameda has a new attitude.

Namely, fun.

"The last few seasons, we felt like we had to win. We felt pressured," Rebels senior Lisa Sampson. "Now, with our new coaches, we just go out and do the best we can. We apply our new techniques, and have fun with them."

"There's a whole different feel," said senior Bridget Byrne. "The program's rejuvenated, the coaches are so young and energetic. "The whole team's attitude is so different, with a drive and determination to get better."

After the 2-0 triumph against the alumni, the Lady Rebels opened with five road games in Tucson, Ariz. They came home with a 2-3 record after victories against New Mexico and Mississippi and losses to Cal-Northridge, Arizona and Cal-Northridge again.

On Friday they return home for the 15-team UNLV Softball Classic, which begins a stretch of home games that will last until early March. California and Hawaii will be at UNLV for games Friday, followed by Michigan and Notre Dame on Saturday and Wisconsin on Sunday.

And now Alameda, who said she could sense the team was ready for a change, can begin to see if progress can be measured in more than just a victory against the stars of past Rebels teams.

"At our first meeting," she said, "I could see it in all 19 sets of eyes -- this is the change we want. I've been so amazed at the work ethic, even at 7 a.m. workouts, the energy, the drive, the push to transform this team.

Last year's team finished last in the six-team Mountain West Conference was this year's team was picked to finish fifth in a preseason poll. UNLV is returning only one all conference player, junior pitcher Jackie Kerrigan. Sampson and Morgan Bostwick both average over .270 last season, and Academic All-MWC outfielder Byrne logged nine stolen bases in 2003.

For Alameda, the challenge this this lies not only in teaching her system, but adapting to her new players. Stanford, after all, attracts a different kind of student-athlete.

"The Stanford athlete is a little more analytical to coach ... sometimes they'd get analysis paralysis," she said. "We have some of that analysis, all 19 of their minds are open, taking everying in.

The schedule will definitely challenge Alameda's new team. Nine preseason Top 25 teams appeared on the Rebels schedule.

"We set up the schedule to be very competitive," Alameda said. "We had to call around and find out where we could fit in. Playing Nebraska, Michigan, Oregon is very tough competition. We're letting the community know the level we want to compete at."

And that level is at the powerhouse caliber that several other West Coast schools have reached.

"I think this job is a gold mine. We're close enough to the hotbed of softball, we have the community support, we have year-round weather," she said. "Our goal is to be a Top 10 program, and someday, I hope to be with Stanford recruiting kids."

Kerrigan, of Eugene, Ore., earns the first award to be presented by the league this year and claims the honor for the fourth time in her career.

For the week, Kerrigan posted a 2-2 record in four appearances, with wins against MWC rival New Mexico and Mississippi. She allowed just four earned runs on the weekend, three of which came at the hands of then-second-ranked Arizona. In 22.0 innings of work, the Rebels' ace struck out 27 batters and walked just six.