This may be the best volleyball team in UNLV history

By Taylor Bern

Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2014 | 2 a.m.

Whether you want to go back to the preseason or really fire up the DeLorean back to 2010, UNLV volleyball coach Cindy Fredrick could predict something like this was coming. If comedy recognizes a rule of threes, Fredrick has perfected the rule of Year Four.

A lot of the familiar signs had been there through her first three seasons, the same kind of progress she and top assistant Mashallah Farokhmanesh, her husband, saw during previous stops at Washington State and Weber State.

At both of those programs the coaches’ first NCAA Tournament berth came in their fourth year. So, while an outsider would be surprised that a season starting with UNLV picked seventh in the Mountain West is shaping up as the best year in program history, Fredrick trusted history would repeat itself.

“We saw it coming to a degree,” she said.

Tonight at Utah State the Rebels (24-6, 12-3) could set a new program record for regular-season victories and conference victories while notching win No. 500 in Fredrick’s career. The milestones are great to look back on, but a victory is more important because UNLV might need to win its final three matches in order to reach its first NCAA Tournament since 2007. The program debuted in 1996 and has just the one tournament appearance.

After graduating most of its top performers from last year’s roster, this season’s team has already achieved a lot. The Rebels hadn’t reached 20 victories since 2007 when they won the Mountain West league tournament title, and the home victory against 10th ranked Colorado State on Nov. 1 was the first against a top-10 team in program history.

Fredrick prides herself on competitive practices, which have resulted in better performances against the Rebels’ top opponents.

Up in Fort Collins, Colo., on Oct. 2 UNLV won a game in a match against Colorado State for the first time ever. In the rematch at Cox Pavilion the Rebels won three straight games after losing the first. Colorado State is the class of the Mountain West.

“Every drill we do is competitive. They will fight and argue for points and touches,” Fredrick said. “… The fire from our kids was just amazing.”

At the center of that is redshirt sophomore Bree Hammel, a Bonanza High grad who this season moved from the outside to the middle, which is the key position in Fredrick’s system. The 6-foot Hammel was hesitant at first because the outside hitters generally get the big stats.

“She likes that power,” Fredrick said. “It’s effortless for her.”

Once she accepted the switch things started to click and Hammel could see her potential at a new spot. She ranks seventh in the country in total blocks (158), which is the main reason UNLV ranks third nationally in that stat as a team.

Elsewhere in the lineup sophomore outside hitter Alyssa Wing has developed and senior Allison Davies has been a steady hand as one of the few seniors on the roster.

“This is a group that embraces everything we’re doing more than any team we’ve had,” Fredrick said.

But how will the selection committee embrace them? Unless Colorado State stumbles the Rebels must depend on an at-large bid, which is no guarantee. Their RPI (61) and record against top-100 teams (5-6) put them firmly in the conversation but that’s all.

It’s possible that even one more loss would keep UNLV out of the 64-team field, and then the best season in program history would end without a postseason.

Fredrick prefers to take the schedule one game at a time but she’s thought about how it would feel to be left out of the field. How could she not? Believing in the Year Four breakthrough has gotten the Rebels this far but soon it will be out of their control.

“It would be devastating, and not from my perspective but from the perspective of my players,” Fredrick said. “… You want them to be rewarded for that because otherwise how do you say hard work pays off?”

Taylor Bern can be reached at 702-948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Taylor on Twitter at twitter.com/taylorbern.