Rebels ready for NCAAs

The UNLV volleyball team finally has its name on an NCAA Tournament bracket.

The Rebels, who won the Mountain West Conference title Saturday night, will head to Los Angeles to play in the program's first national tournament match.

UNLV (24-5), the No. 2 seed in the region, will face No. 3 seed Long Beach State (25-6) in a first-round match at 4:30 p.m. Friday. Site host and top seed Southern California (25-4) will face fourth-seeded Pepperdine (18-10) at 7 p.m.

The winners then play at 7 p.m. Saturday for a berth in the Sweet 16.

"It's something we've been working so hard for, to finally have our name up there," senior outside hitter Brittani Lumsden said. "We feel like we accomplished what we came here to do."

The Rebels gathered Sunday, one day after winning an exciting MWC title match against Utah, to watch the volleyball selection show. The team erupted when the school's name was shown on the brackets.

The Rebels, who tied for second in the Mountain West during the regular season, received the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament by beating the Utes, 24-30, 33-31, 30-17, 21-30, 15-12.

"It's icing on the cake to go out in my senior year proving to the country that we really are a top team," libero Jada Walker said.

UNLV probably would have made the NCAA field even if it had lost the MWC tourney final, as regular-season conference champion Colorado State and Brigham Young received at-large bids.

"We were bummed out when we didn't get in last year," Lumsden said. "We wanted to make sure there was no doubt about us being there. There was no way someone could decide whether or not we were going to make it."

Long Beach finished second in the Big West Conference. The 49ers upset No. 7 Florida on Saturday.

The 49ers, who will make their 20th consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance, are led by conference player of the year Alexis Crimes, a senior middle blocker.

"Their middles are very dominant, so we have to match up well against the middles and they run a pretty quick offense to the outside," UNLV coach Allison Keeley said. "It'll be a really good matchup for us, though, fairly similar teams."

Walker also can help provide some advance scouting. She and Crimes have been close friends for seven years and talk nearly every day.

"It's special to me that we're going to be going up against each other," Walker said.

Should the Rebels and Pepperdine win in the first round, Lumsden would match up against her younger sister, Rachel, a sophomore outside hitter for the Waves.

UNLV also played USC in a spring match.

"I like the fact that they're going to be tested by someone they know," Keeley said. "They're better against a known factor than an unknown factor. They're confident walking into it."