UNLV softball loses head coach

UNLV softball coach Lonni Alameda has left the Rebels after five seasons to replace a coaching legend in the sport at Florida State.

Alameda succeeds JoAnne Graf, who retired a month ago after winning 1,437 games in a 30-year career in Tallahassee, Fla. No college coach has won more games than Graf, who will begin teaching in Florida State's School of Education.

It will be daunting for Alameda when she leads her Seminoles for the first time onto JoAnne Graf Field at the Seminole Softball Complex.

"It's a great opportunity for her," said UNLV athletics director Mike Hamrick, who said Alameda told him Monday she was leaving. "When you have good coaches, sometimes it's hard to keep them.

"We'll evaluate the softball coaching market to see who's available, and then we'll set a timetable for hiring a new coach."

The 2008 season started with high hopes in February when the Rebels beat visiting Arizona State -- the eventual national champion -- in the fourth game of the year and were ranked in the top 25.

But UNLV lost 10 of its final 14 games to finish 25-40-1 overall and 5-15 in the Mountain West Conference.

Alameda leaves UNLV with a record of 157-158-1 and two winning seasons. Her best record was 44-19 in 2005, when she was named Mountain West Conference coach of the year.

Alameda, who could not be reached for comment Tuesday, was hired at UNLV after eight seasons as an assistant coach at Stanford.