Volleyball: Pack gets first sweep of year against SJSU

Tuesday, November 3, 2009 - 12:47 AM

After sweeping San Jose State on Thursday (25-15, 25-17 and 25-13), Nevada lost in straight sets to Hawaii on Sunday (25-16, 25-20 and 25-17). The split left the Wolf Pack’s mark at 8-16 overall and 4-7 in Western Athletic Conference play. Photo by Brian Bolton/Nevada Sagebrush

With just five conference games left in the regular season, the Wolf Pack is switching its gears at the right time.

Despite floating near the bottom few teams of the Western Athletic Conference, Nevada’s domination of San Jose State last Thursday pushes the Pack into the sixth and last available spot of the WAC Tournament for the time being.

“I like what I’m seeing now,” Nevada head coach Devin Scruggs said. “We get into it, are eliminating our errors and are on the borderline of making the tournament and reaching our goal.”

This Thursday, Nevada will host the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in a non-conference game. Then, the team travels to the Bay Area on Saturday for a rematch with San Jose State, the only match Nevada has won in three sets.

While Nevada comes into the week with the hold on the sixth and final spot for the WAC Tournament, it’s far from being clinched.

“It’s a race for the WAC Tournament right now and we need to just win the games we’re supposed to win,” junior Kylie Harrington said.

There’s no doubt that the final month of the schedule will test Nevada. The Pack is 0-8 on the road and with three of the last five WAC games on the road; Nevada will need to improve through the stretch if they hope to punch their ticket to the WAC Tournament in Las Vegas.

Against its final five conference opponents Nevada is 3-2 and is currently half of a match ahead of Louisiana Tech (4-8) and Utah State (4-8) in the WAC at 4-7.

“Unfortunately we have three of these matches on the road,” junior Nicole Link said. “We need to take all three of them or at least two because each team is beatable.”

Getting to the tournament has been the goal for Nevada all season. Road play has nearly crippled the Wolf Pack, as they’ve gone winless overall to this point.

“Pretty much from top to bottom there is a lot of really good teams in the WAC,” Harrington said. “Not making errors will turn into the difference of how this season ends up.”

Since joining the WAC in 2000 under Scruggs, the Wolf Pack has never finished below fifth place in the conference. That stat has been in jeopardy all season and will continue to be heading down the final stretch of November.

Brent Kirkland can be reached at sports@nevadasagebrush.com.