Oct. 29, 2009

LAS VEGAS - The UNLV men's and women's swimming and diving team will open the 2009-10 dual meet season this weekend on the road, as the Rebels will meet BYU on Friday at 5 pm, and finish their trip with a Saturday meet at Utah, beginning at 12 pm.

The Rebel men's team, five-time defending Mountain West Conference championships, return a loaded squad that lost only two seniors from last year's team. UNLV has also won nine-straight conference dual meets, with the last loss coming at BYU to being the 2007-08 season. The Rebels finished the 2008-09 season ranked 24th in the final poll. Highlighting the returnees for UNLV is junior Kier Maitland, the 2009 MWC Swimmer of the Year.

UNLV's women's squad meanwhile is favored to finish second after a close runner-up finish to BYU at last year's championships. The Rebels have brought in a strong freshman class, while Ana Dangalakova and Marva Harpak look to repeat as individual conference champions this season.