Aug. 7, 2000

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - UNLV tied with San Diego State for fourth place in the 2000 Mountain West Conference Women's Volleyball Preseason Coaches Poll, which was released Monday.

The Rebels and Aztecs both earned 36 points. Defending regular-season MWC champion BYU and inaugural league tournament winner Colorado State both received 53 points and four first-place votes to tie for first. Utah, which joined the Cougars and Rams in making the NCAA tournament field a year ago, was third with 41 points.

New Mexico (26 points), Wyoming (18) and Air Force (17) rounded out the poll.

UNLV is coming off a 12-14 season that included a 4-10 conference mark, which was good enough to tie for sixth place.

The 2000 edition of the Rebels opens play Sept. 1-2 at the Sun Trust Invitational in Gainesville, Fla., with round-robin play featuring host Florida, Ball State and Wisconsin. The MWC season opens Sept. 22 with BYU hosting UNLV.

2000 Mountain West Conference Preseason Coaches Poll
Team (first-place votes)    Pts.
1. BYU# (4)                 53   Colorado State* (4)      533. Utah                     414. UNLV                     36   San Diego State          366. New Mexico               267. Wyoming                  188. Air Force                17
#-indicates 1999 MWC regular-season champion*-indicates 1999 MWC tournament champion