2015 UNLV Volleyball Weekly Notes: Week One

2015 UNLV Invitational Tournament Central

LAS VEGAS (UNLVRebels.com) - The UNLV Rebels open up the 2015 volleyball season at home this weekend in their own UNLV Invitational, which will be played at the Cox Pavilion. The two-day tournament will feature two matches on Friday, Aug. 28 that will be followed by four more on Saturday, Aug. 29. Joining the Scarlet & Gray in Las Vegas will be the Central Arkansas Sugar Bears, Omaha Mavericks and Seton Hall Pirates.

Omaha and Seton Hall get the weekend's action started at 3:30 pm Friday. UNLV and Central Arkansas will follow that contest at 6:00 pm. The Rebels will bookend Saturday's slate with a 10:00 am affair with Omaha and a 7:00 pm tilt versus Seton Hall. In between those two matches will be Central Arkansas squaring off against Seton Hall (12:30 pm) and Omaha (4:30 pm).

UNLV INVITATIONAL SCHEDULE

Friday, Aug. 28    3:30 pm     Omaha vs. Seton Hall    6:00 pm     UNLV vs. Central Arkansas
Saturday, Aug. 29    10:00 am     UNLV vs. Omaha    12:30 pm     Seton Hall vs. Central Arkansas    04:30 pm     Central Arkansas vs. Omaha    07:00 pm     UNLV vs. Seton Hall
*The team listed first is designated as the home team.

FOLLOW THE STREAMS THIS WEEKEND: The UNLV Rebels will have two of their three matches in this weekend's UNLV Invitational streamed live in conjunction with the Mountain West Network. UNLV's first contest of the 2015 season against the Central Arkansas Sugar Bears Friday night (6:00 pm) will kick off the coverage. The Rebels' bout with Omaha Saturday morning (10:00 am) will also be made available online.

Every match during the Invitational will have dedicated live stats, which can be found at UNLVRebels.com.

There is a dedicated tournament central page that houses all links to live video, box scores and the aforementioned live stats.

UNLV PICKED SECOND IN PRESEASON POLL: The UNLV volleyball team was predicted to finish with a share of second place in the 2015 Mountain West Preseason Poll, which was voted on by the Conference's 11 head coaches. The Rebels and the Boise State Broncos collected 83 points apiece, but trailed the 12th-ranked and six-time defending champion Colorado State Rams' haul of 97 points.

The second-place forecast is the highest achieved by UNLV dating back to the first poll conducted in 1999 -- the league's inaugural year. Two years ago, the Rebels were tabbed third overall, and that placement surpassed five different years slotted in fourth.

CSU received seven of the 11 first-place votes, while UNLV was second with two. Boise State and the Wyoming Cowgirls, who were picked fourth (77 points) were both selected to conclude the year atop the Conference's standings by one coach.

Rounding out fifth through 11th in the poll were New Mexico (67), San Diego State (58), Air Force (41), Utah State (39), Fresno State (26), Nevada, Reno (20) and San Jose State (14).

HAMMEL SELECTED TO PRESEASON TEAM: In addition to voting on the Mountain West's Preseason Poll, the Conference's head coaches also selected a seven-member All-MW Preseason Team. UNLV's Bree Hammel, a redshirt junior, earned a spot on the squad after she was named to the 2014 All-MW Team and as an AVCA All-Pacific South Honorable Mention performer.

The Las Vegas native led the Rebels in hitting efficiency (.343) and all three blocking categories, which, coincidentally, ranked her sixth nationally in blocks per set (1.51) and ninth in total blocks (174).

2015 SCHEDULE BREAKDOWN: The UNLV volleyball program will play a total of 30 regular-season matches - 15 of which will take place in the Cox Pavilion - during the 2015 campaign, announced by the athletics department Friday. The fall slate will feature 18 contests against Mountain West foes and 12 more versus non-conference competition.

UNLV will play five teams that earned berths into the 64-team field of the 2014 NCAA Tournament. Both Illinois and Colorado went 2-1, while Arizona State was 1-1. Seton Hall and Kansas State each lost their first-round matchups. In addition, three of the quintet concluded the '14 season ranked in the AVCA Division I Coaches Final Poll, as Illinois and Colorado State were 11th and 12th, respectively, and Arizona State was 22nd.

The Rebels open the '15 season with a pair of four-team home tournaments in weeks one and three. They will welcome Central Arkansas, Omaha and Seton Hall to the Las Vegas Valley on Aug. 28-29 for the UNLV Invitational. Two weeks later (Sept. 11-12), they'll host Southeastern Louisiana, Portland State and Oral Roberts in the Rebel Challenge.

UNLV will hit the road during the second and fourth weekends of the season with trips to Manhattan, Kan., and Tempe, Ariz., respectively. The Rebels will join the likes of California and Green Bay at

Kansas State's own Invitational on Sept. 4-5. They'll go head-to-head against Illinois, Texas Southern and host Arizona State at the Red Lyon Invitational on Sept. 18-19.

In Conference play, which runs Sept. 26 through Nov. 24, the Rebels will square off twice apiece (home and away) against San Jose State, Boise State, Utah State, Air Force, New Mexico, Fresno State and Nevada, Reno. They will only face Colorado State (home) and Wyoming (away) once in the 18-match slate.