UNLV volleyball coach Dawn Sullivan’s cellphone buzzed on this early morning last summer. It was another one of the university’s coaches paying her a compliment.
Sullivan’s players, with no season to play because of the pandemic, were busy running on the track in an attempt to retain their fitness level for whenever a season would occur. And it wasn’t a handful of players — it was every player in the program, the other coach told Sullivan.
“They are out running on the track pushing each other to no end,” Sullivan said. “That’s what makes this group special. They were putting in extra time with no one watching.”
The effort paid dividends.
When the fall season finally launched in the spring, UNLV produced the best campaign in the program’s roughly 25-year history, finishing undefeated and winning the Mountain West championship.
Now, they want more — an NCAA Tournament win. The Rebels open the tournament at 4 p.m. today in Omaha, Neb., against Illinois State. The winner advances to meet No. 2-seeded Kentucky on Thursday. The 48-team tournament, cut from the usual 64 teams because of the pandemic, is being contested entirely in Omaha. Finals are set for April 24.
“The thought of some other team out there working harder than us was motivation,” said Mariena Hayden, UNLV’s record-setting senior outside hitter. “If we wanted to win the conference this year, we knew we had to push ourselves.”
The program stopped and started twice in the 1980s, before restarting permanently in 1996. It has just one win in three tournament appearances, in 2016 when UNLV upset Utah.
When Sullivan became the UNLV coach in 2018, the program had a core of talented younger players. The general consensus was they would grow together, competing for a spot in the tournament in 2020.
And the plan appeared to be working.
The program went from an eight-win season in 2017, to 22 wins in Sullivan’s debut season. They played in the National Invitational Volleyball Championship (volleyball’s version of basketball’s postseason NIT) in each of the past two seasons, reaching the semifinals in 2019.
They were supposed to contend for the league title and automatic tournament berth in 2020. Then, the coronavirus hit.
The pandemic changed the way everyone went about their lives. For the volleyball team, it altered the way they trained — but not the intensity with which they worked out.
Most players last March retreated to their hometowns, where access to gyms was limited because of virus restrictions. So, the players got together for workouts using videoconferencing, pushing each other to finish drills and get better.
The sessions were frequent, and they sometimes included the players’ smartphones overheating from the extended time on video conferencing and being in the heat, Hayden said.
“They handled the adversity very, very well,” Sullivan said. “By the time we got back in the gym to train, it was something they were thankful for. It was like, ‘Wow, I miss having volleyball.’ They are never going to take for granted again the opportunity to train.”
The delayed season also had one important benefit for UNLV.
While the roster has six seniors, including all-league performers like Hayden and Kate Brennan, the Rebels’ setter was a true freshman, Arien Fafard of Palo Verde High School. Getting Fafard acclimated with teammates was made easier with the delay, and she delivered with 5.86 assists per game in starting the entire season.
The team’s veterans have done the rest.
Hayden was the Mountain West’s Offensive Player of the Week three times this season, and she led the nation in aces per set at 0.95, was third in service aces at 40 overall, and seventh nationally in points per set at 5.38.
The expectation is to continue the good play in the tournament, which will be broadcast on ESPN3 and is accessible via the ESPN mobile app or website.
“We are excited to show everyone what UNLV volleyball is about,” Hayden said.
Sullivan learned that during her initial visit to campus three years ago before taking the job. She was a longtime assistant coach at Iowa State, which she helped coach to the NCAA Tournament 12 times and twice to the regional finals. She remembers seeing the UNLV facilities and walking around campus, and quickly concluding that a winning program could be built in Las Vegas.
“When I got to campus, I looked for a few things,” Sullivan said. “Is this a place I can sell (to recruits)? Well, Las Vegas is a pretty cool city and support of the community is impressive. Then you walked around campus and it’s really beautiful. You have to see it, it has a real campus feel. ... This was a hidden gem.”
And while the roster is dominated by older players, Sullivan is confident that this season’s tournament run won’t be a one-time occurrence. She expects the team to have a great tournament showing, and then be back in future seasons. They’ll have a good foundation with Fafard and sophomore hitter Shelby Capllonch, who was second on the team in kills with 101.
“This is a special season for (the players),” Sullivan said. “They have raised the expectation and set a standard of where we want to maintain and stay.”