Jan. 27, 2010

LAS VEGAS - The 2010 UNLV softball team was picked to finish third in this year's Mountain West Conference Preseason Poll, as voted on by the league's six head coaches. This is the third consecutive year that the Rebels have been slotted in the third spot. UNLV picked up 17 points in the poll to trail fellow 2009 NCAA Tournament participants BYU and San Diego State. BYU picked up four first-place votes en route to 24 points, while SDSU came in second with two first-place votes and 22 points. Utah, Colorado State and New Mexico closed out the final three squads with 10, nine and eight points, respectively.

The Rebels return a senior-laden squad to the field this season, as the team will be comprised of 10 seniors, three juniors, seven sophomores and five freshmen. More importantly, nine positional starters and three starting pitchers come back from the NCAA Tournament run a year ago.

Individually, the team welcomes back four players that have been named to at least two MWC All-Conference Teams, in Kendall Fearn, Ashli Holland, Jaci Hull and Marissa Nichols.

UNLV opens up the season at home Feb. 12-14, with its own Sportco Kick-Off Classic. The Rebels will welcome Long Beach State, Cal State Bakersfield, Illinois, Kent State, Loyola Marymount and UC Davis to Las Vegas for the three-day affair.

2010 MWC Preseason PollPlace Team (1st place votes)  Points1   BYU (4)         242   San Diego State (2) 223    UNLV            174   Utah            105   Colorado State      96   New Mexico      8