Nov. 18, 2003

LAS VEGAS - ABOUT THE TOURNAMENT

San Diego State University will host the 2003 Mountain West Conference Women's Volleyball Championship November 20-22 at Peterson Gym in San Diego. This will mark the first time in conference history that the event will be held at The Pete. The facility, which opened in May of 1961, is located on 55th Street on the west side of the San Diego State campus and has a seating capacity of 3,668.

The winner of the Mountain West Conference Tournament receives the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. The MWC Tournament Champion has advanced to the NCAA Sweet 16 three of the last four years.

A No. 1 seed has never won the Mountain West Conference Championship, while the No. 2 seed has won three of the four years (1999-No. 2 CSU, 2000-No. 2 BYU, 2001-No. 2 Utah). The No. 3 seed has won once (2002-No. 3 Utah). Each of the top four seeds have made it to the finals, while the No. 5 seed has two semifinal appearances.

November 20 (Thursday)     TIME#2 UTAH vs. #7 WYO            11 a.m. PT#3 BYU vs. #6 AFA             1:30 p.m. PT#1 CSU vs. #8 UNM             4 p.m. PT#4 SDSU vs. #5 UNLV           7 p.m. PT
November 21 (Friday)Semifinal #1                  4 p.m. PTSemifinal #2                  7 p.m. PT
November 22 (Saturday)Championship                  7 p.m. PT

UNLV enters tournament play with an 11-16 overall record, 4-10 in Mountain West Conference play. As the fifth seed, the Rebels will open play in the 2003 MWC Tournament against fourth-seeded San Diego State. UNLV entered last year's tournament as the fifth seed against BYU, which the Rebels lost 3-2 (30-26, 30-32, 31-33, 30-16, 11-15).

The Rebels dropped both meetings against San Diego State this season, falling to the Aztecs on Sept. 26 in Las Vegas 3-0 (22-30, 25-30, 29-31) and dropping a 3-1 (25-30, 30-24, 21-30, 16-30) decision at San Diego.

Should UNLV defeat San Diego State, the team's second-round match would be against the winner of No. 1 Colorado State vs. No. 8 New Mexico at 7 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 21.

SENIOR LEADERSHIP

Leiana Oswald is one of only three MWC players averaging over 4.0 kills per game this season and she has double figure kills in six straight matches, while hitting .306 in that span.

Sheila Ocasio-Clemente is sixth in MWC matches with 1.24 blocks per game.

VS. SAN DIEGO STATE

SDSU leads the all-time series 13-3, including two victories this season, but the Rebels have won twice in the last five meetings. The Aztecs and Rebels entered the 2001 MWC tournament as the No. 4 and No. 5 seeds, respectively, and UNLV posted a 3-2 win.

SDSU is 2-4 overall in MWC tournaments, while UNLV is 1-4 with its only win coming vs. the Aztecs.

CONSISTENCY

Five Rebels, Sheila Ocasio-Clemente, Leiana Oswald, Patricia Assuncao, Kristin Koochi and Nina Franchini, have played in all 27 matches this season.

RECORD BREAKERS

Three Rebels set all-time records this season.

Senior Leiana Oswald set the career kills mark in the season-opener against Loyola Marymont. She enters the MWC Championship with 1296 kills, having eclipsed the previous record of 912 held by the Rebels' current volunteer assistant coach Angie (Sylvas) Vetter who played from 1997-1999.

Oswald is also UNLV's career digs leader with 794 and counting. Meri-de Boyer (1996-98) held the previous mark at 777.

When Oswald takes the court against San Diego State on Thursday night it will be her 111th match as a Rebel, tying the program's matches-played record held by Christel Eves (1996-99). Fellow senior Patricia Assuncao has played in one less match than Oswald.

Junior Nicki King became UNLV's all-time assist leader against Wyoming on Oct. 30 of this year. Her 22nd assist of the match, off a Leiana Oswald kill gave her 2791 in her three-year career. The previous mark was held by Mari-de Boyer (2790) who played from 1996-1998. King enters the MWC Championship with 3041 assists.

With a minimum of three matches left, senior Sheila Ocasio-Clemente has the opportunity to take a pair of blocking records. At 341, she is 18 total blocks away from Christel Eves' (1996-99) record of 359. Ocasio-Clemente also has 304 assisted blocks, just 27 assists from Eve's record of 331.

DOUBLE-DOUBLESNicki King (4)  Lamar - 10 digs, 57 assists  Idaho State - 12 digs, 54 assists  BYU - 10 digs, 37 assists  Northern Arizona - 10 digs, 57 assistsLeiana Oswald (4)  Loyola Marymount - 10 kills, 11 digs  Gonzaga - 20 kills, 11 digs  Air Force - 18 kills, 10 digs  Northern Arizona - 20 kills, 18 digsTarin Keith (5)  Lamar - 16 kills, 11 digs  Gonzaga - 20 kills, 12 digs  Idaho State - 12 kills, 16 digs  Boise State - 11 kills, 13 digs  Loyola Marymont - 15 kills, 10 digs

Seven MWC schools have topped 1,000 fans for a single match this season: Air Force, BYU, Colorado State, New Mexico, UNLV, Utah and Wyoming.

The Rebels hosted 1,187 fans against San Diego State on Sept. 26.

The Utes were recently added to the list with 1,320 on hand for the BYU match Nov. 7. BYU and Colorado State are among the top 25 nationally for attendance.

MWC TOURNAMENT TICKETS

Tickets are available by calling the San Diego State University Athletic Ticket Office at (877) SDSU-039 or (619) 283-SDSU.

Prices are as follows:
All Session Adult - $15
All Session Youth/Student - $12
Single Session Adult - $7
Single Session Youth/Student - $5

MOUNTAIN WEST VOLLEYBALL CHAMPIONSHIP TELEVISON SCHEDULE

This is the second straight year that matches will be broadcast back to each Mountain West Conference market, and the fourth straight year the MWC has televised the entire championship. Preliminary round matches can be seen on over-the-air and cable affiliates throughout the Mountain West Conference region. Saturday's title match will be televised live at 8 p.m. MT on Fox Sports Net (Rocky Mountain) with a coverage area including Colorado, Utah and Wyoming, as well as parts of Montana, Idaho, Kansas, Nebraska and Nevada.

The telecast will also be available to a national audience on FSN to DirecTV subscribers. The semifinals and finals will air on CSTV via tape delay. The complete schedule, satellite coordinates and clearances are listed below. Check local listings for match coverage. In addition to television coverage, the Mountain West Conference will feature livestats for all rounds of the volleyball championship. Log on to www.TheMWC.com for up-to-the-minute action of the matches. Other championship information will be posted to the website regularly throughout the championship, including box scores, notes and recaps.

AIR TIME (all Pacific Time):Thursday, Nov. 20#2 Utah vs. #7 Wyoming 11 a.m. MWC-TV#3 BYU vs. #6 Air Force 1:30 p.m. MWC-TV#1 Colorado St. vs. #8 New Mexico 4 p.m. MWC-TV#4 San Diego St. vs. #5 UNLV 7 p.m. MWC-TV
Friday, Nov. 21Semifinal #1, 4 p.m. MWC-TV CSTV* (delay - Sat., Nov. 22 at 11 a.m.)Semifinal #2, 7 p.m. MWC-TV CSTV*(delay - Sat., Nov. 22 at  1 p.m.)
Saturday, Nov. 22Championship, 7 p.m. MWC-TV,Fox Sports Net-RM (live), CSTV(delay - Mon., Nov. 24 at 6:30 p.m.)*CSTV will also air semifinal replays later on Sat., Nov. 22