Tournament Action Continues
BYU, Colorado State and UNLV host tournaments this weekend, while the remaining five conference teams travel for tournament play. Last week, MWC teams posted a combined 12-13 record in tournaments. Listed below is a recap of the results:

* Air Force was 2-1 in the Air Force Invitational.
* BYU was 1-1 in the Shamrock Invitational at Notre Dame after defeating Clemson and falling to the host Fighting Irish.
* Colorado State picked up a pair of wins at the USBank Nebraska Tournament, but dropped a match to No. 6 Nebraska.
* New Mexico posted a 2-2 record in the UNM-Comcast Invitational.
* San Diego State dropped three matches, all to ranked opponents, in the SDSU "Diggin' It 2000" Tournament.
* UNLV fell to ranked opponents Florida and Wisconsin, and dropped a third match to Ball State at the Florida Tournament.
* Utah improved to 3-0 on the year after winning all three matches at the New Hampshire Tournament.
* Wyoming posted a 2-3 record last weekend, including a 1-3 mark at the Texas-San Antonio Tournament.

Tournament Honors
All eight Mountain West teams participated in tournaments last weekend. Following is a list of honors received at the tournaments:
* Air Force Academy's Shaylor Billings, Ana-Maria Ortega and Delevane Diaz were named to the Air Force Invitational all-tournament team. The Falcons were 2-1 in the tournament.
* BYU placed three players on the Shamrock Invitational all-tournament team at Notre Dame: Sunny Tonga, Nina Puikkonen and Melissa Layton.
* Colorado State's Courtney Cox, Angela Knopf and Krista Swartzendruber were named to the USBank Nebraska all-tournament team last weekend after leading the Rams to a 2-1 record. Cox also garnered tournament MVP honors at the NACWAA State Farm Volleyball Classic earlier this season.
* New Mexico's Vanessa Shields and Amy Amundson earned all-tournament team honors at the New Mexico Invitational after the Lobos posted a 2-2 record.
* Utah's Katrena Ellett was named Most Valuable Player at the New Hampshire Tournament after helping the Utes to a 3-0 mark. Jen Snow-Richards and Lucie Tarkova joined teammate Ellett on the all-tournament team.

Playing the Best
The Mountain West Conference continues to play some of the nation's best teams. Colorado State has already met a No. 1 team (UCLA), and after this week Utah and BYU will also have tangled with the nation's best team in Stanford.

After eight matches vs. top 30 opponents last weekend, the MWC will have nine matches vs. top 25 opponents this weekend. Counting Colorado State's victories over No. 9 Florida and No. 1 UCLA in week one of the season, MWC teams will have battled nine top 10 opponents in the first three weeks of the season. On tap this weekend:

Sept. 5
No. 20 Kansas State at No. 17 BYU
No. 9 Pepperdine at San Diego State
No. 1 Stanford at Utah

Sept. 8
No. 1 Stanford at No. 17 BYU
New Mexico at No. 25 Michigan

Sept. 9
Air Force at No. 20 Kansas State
No. 2 Long Beach State at No. 17 BYU
No. 13 UC Santa Barbara at No. 7 Colorado State
No. 24 San Diego vs. Utah

Mountain West Conference teams will face a total of 25 teams that participated in the NCAA Tournament in 1999 in a total of 44 matches, an increase from last season's total of 21 teams in 35 matches.

The Rankings
Colorado State reached No. 7 this week in the U S A Today/AVCA Division I Top 25 Coaches poll while BYU slipped to No. 17. The Rams have been ranked in the poll 116 weeks since the poll began in 1982 and the Cougars have been ranked 214 weeks. BYU reached its highest ranking in school history at No. 1 on four occasions, and the Rams reached their best ranking at No. 5 in 1987.

CSU and BYU spent the entire 1999 season ranked in the USAToday/AVCA poll before finishing the season rated 12th and 13th in the nation, respectively.

MWC vs. Non-conference
Listed below is the MWC record against non-conference opponents. Last year, Mountain West teams posted a 45-39 record against the top 15 conferences listed in the 1999 final RPI ranking.

2000 vs. Non-conference
ACC 1-0
Big East 0-1
Big Sky 1-0
Big Ten 1-1
Big 12 0-1
Big West 0-1
Mid-American 1-1
Missouri Valley 1-0
Pac 10 1-3
SEC 3-2
Southland 2-1
West Coast 0-1
Total 11-12

Coaching Milestones
Several Mountain West Conference head volleyball coaches will approach significant milestones this season.

* BYU's Elaine Michaelis, who is second in all-time victories among NCAA Division I coaches with 842, needs just eight wins to reach the 850-milestone. Michaelis is also the all-time leader in wins among female coaches.
* UNLV's Deitre Collins needs just one win to reach 50 career victories.
* Colorado State's Tom Hilbert has topped 20 wins each of the last eight seasons, including three straight with the Rams. One more 20-win season would put Hilbert at 275 career victories.
* Utah's Beth Launiere would reach 200 career victories if the Utes can put together a fifth straight 20-win campaign.
* Wyoming's Susan Judge needs just three wins to reach 100 career victories.

Entering this season, Mountain West Conference head volleyball coaches had a combined 1,913 career victories and 92 years of coaching experience. BYU's Elaine Michaelis was the dean of the MWC coaches with an 851-209-5 record in 31 seasons. Although he is in his 12th season overall as a head coach, Colorado State's Tom Hilbert is the newcomer to the MWC with an 81-17 record in three seasons.

1999 Volleyball Rating Percentage Index (RPI)
Rk., Conference (1999 MWC record vs. conference)
1. Big Ten (1-1)
2. ACC (3-2)
3. Mountain West
4. Pac-10 (4-5)
5. Big 12 (6-7)
6. SEC (3-2)
7. Big West (4-4)
8. Big Sky (5-3)
9. Big East (6-3)
10. Atlantic 10 (2-0)
11. West Coast
12. C-USA (4-0)
13. WAC (3-3)
14. Ivy (0-0)
15. Colonial

Preseason Coaches' Poll
1. BYU (4) 53
1. Colorado State (4) 53
3. Utah 41
4. San Diego State 36
4. UNLV 36
6. New Mexico 26
7. Wyoming 18
8. Air Force 17

Mountain West Conference Firsts
Colorado State's upset of No. 1 UCLA in Gainesville, Fla., last weekend marks the first-ever victory by any Mountain West Conference team over a No. 1-ranked opponent. The Rams also stunned host and No. 9-ranked Florida in the semifinals en route to the NACWAAState Farm Volleyball Classic Championship. The NACWAA State Farm Classic Champion has advanced to the NCAA Final Four each of the past five seasons.

MWC Granted Automatic Qualification
Entering its second year in existence, the Mountain West Conference was granted automatic qualification by the NCAA, meaning the champion of the postseason tournament will receive an automatic bid to the 2000 NCAA Volleyball Tournament. Last year without the automatic bid, three teams received at-large bids to the 64-team tournament.

MWC Championship in Fort Collins
The 2000 Mountain West Conference volleyball championship will take place in Fort Collins, Colo. Colorado State will serve as host to the championship which takes place Nov. 16-18 at Moby Arena. For media credential information, contact Ron Christian at 719-533-9510.

Nonconference Opponents
The league's nonconference slate will also feature more teams from the major conferences. The following is a breakdown (No. of matches): seven teams from the SEC (8), the Big West (12) and the Pac-10 (11), six from the West Coast (10), four from the Big 12 (6), three from the Big Ten (3), Big East (5), Big Sky (7), five from the Atlantic 10 (5), two from the ACC (2) and the WAC (2).

Team Notes:

Air Force Falcons (2-1, 0-0 MWC)
Head Coach: Penny Lucas-White
Overall Record: 132-161(10th year)
School Record: 37-81 (5th year)
* Air Force is second in the conference in digs (14.73 per game) and assists (13.45 per game).
* A trio of Falcons are second in the individual conference statistics: Shaylor Billings ranks second in the league in kills per game (4.09), Delevane Diaz is second in aces per game (.82) and Ana-Maria Ortega is second in digs per game (3.82).
* Senior outside hitter Ana-Maria Ortega leads the MWC in double-doubles after recording one in each of the three Falcon matches this season.

BYU Cougars (1-1, 0-0 MWC)
Head Coach: Elaine Michaelis
Overall Record: 842-210-5 (32nd year)
School Record: 842-210-5 (32nd year)
* Jackie Bundy's 14 blocks (2 block solo, 12 block assists) against Notre Dame was a new career best for the junior middle blocker. She leads her team and the MWC in blocks with 2.12 per game.
* The Cougars improved to 9-1 overall against the ACC with their win over Clemson. BYU is now 7-1 vs. the Big East Conference after its five-game loss at Notre Dame.
* Despite coming out ahead in most statistical categories, the Cougars dropped the last three games to host Notre Dame Saturday in a five-game thriller for its first defeat of the year. BYU hit .213 compared to Notre Dame's .163, served up nine aces to the Irish's five, recorded 20 team blocks to Notre Dame's 11 and was just one shy in digs with 62 compared to the Irish's 63.
* Playing in her first collegiate match, redshirt freshman setter Karina Puikkonen helped BYU defeat Clemson with 31 assists, three aces, two blocks and four kills while hitting .375. She added 41 assists, eight blocks, six digs and four kills against Notre Dame. Puikkonen, the younger sister of Nina Puikkonen, is filling the role assumed the last four years by All-American Anna-Lena Smith, BYU's all-time assist leader.

Colorado State Rams (4-1, 0-0 MWC)
Head Coach: Tom Hilbert
Overall Record: 259-90 (12th year)
School Record: 85-18 (4th year)
* Junior setter Allison Peckham recorded her 2,000 career assist against Nebraska, becoming only the sixth player in CSU history to accomplish that feat.
* Junior middle blocker Angela Knopf moved onto the career charts in both solo blocks and block assists with three and seven, respectively, against Nebraska on Saturday. She now has 48 solo blocks and 244 block assists for her career.
* Senior Katherine Pettit had a great homecoming at the Nebraska Tournament over the weekend. The back ro w specialist/setter tied her career highs in both digs (11) and service aces (3) in the finals against Nebraska, in which she received a standing ovation from the fans who have been loyal fans to her father, Terry Pettit, the former coach of the Huskers for over 20 seasons.
* Colorado State has now won its last 27 matches after winning games one and two. The Rams are 3-0 this season after winning the first two games, and went a perfect 24-0 in 1999.
* As a team, the Rams lead the conference in assists per game (14.79). Junior outside hitter Courtney Cox leads the MWC in kills per game with 4.68.

New Mexico Lobos (2-2, 0-0 MWC)
Head Coach: Laurel Brassey Iversen
Overall Record: 282-195 (17th year)
School Record: 282-195 (17th year)
* Six of seven Lobos who played against Drake recorded double figure digs (Goff a rd-10, Shields-12, Sansoni-16, Griffin-16, Amundson-11 and Burns-10), and four of the seven notched double-doubles (k/d-Goff a rd 17/10, Shields 18/12, Sansoni 14/16 and Amundson 12/11, Griffin had 58 assists/16 digs).
* New Mexico hit a season high .273 (42k-15e-99ta) against Portland State.
* UNM is averaging 14.64 digs and 14.36 kills per game.
* The Lobos Kelly Griffin is fourth in the Mountain West for assists with 10.86 per game.

San Diego State Aztecs (0-3, 0-0 MWC)
Head Coach: Mark Warner
Overall Record: 83-72 (6th year)
School Record: 83-72 (6th year)
* The Aztecs lost three matches to nationally-ranked squads last weekend during their own Diggin' It 2000 tournament. SDSU fell to 10th-ranked Arizona, 14th-ranked UC Santa Barbara, and San Diego which also received votes in the AVCApre-season poll.
* Aztec freshmen Zlatina Anguelova and Aspen McPartland made big impressions in their first action last weekend. Anguelova led the team with 22 kills, while McPartland, a middle blocker from San Diego, finished a close second to Anguelova with 21 kills.
* Melissa Wright, a sophomore transfer from Washington State, has moved into the starting setter role for the Aztecs. She averaged 11.5 assists per contest in her eight games over the weekend, ranking her third in the MWC statistics.

UNLV Rebels (0-3, 0-0 MWC)
Head Coach: Deitre Collins
Overall Record: 49-65 (5th year)
School Record: 49-65 (5th year)
* UNLV dropped a pair of matches to top 25 teams.
* The Rebels had three players in double figure kills against Ball State (Cordelia Palepoi-14, Leiana Oswald-12, Blair Wilkes-11).
* Freshman outside hitter Leiana Oswald recorded her first career double-double vs. Ball State with 12 kills and 13 digs.
* Junior transfer Cordelia Palepoi recorded a UNLV individual season high of 14 kills vs. Ball State.

Utah Utes (3-0, 0-0 MWC)
Head Coach: Beth Launiere
Overall Record: 183-138 (11th year)
School Record: 183-138 (11th year)
* Senior outside hitter Jen Snow-Richards recorded a career-high for hitting percentage with .722 (13-0-18) in a three-game win over Massachussetts.
* Sophomore middle blocker Katrena Ellett racked up a career-high 14 digs in a three-game sweep of Eastern Michigan.
* The Utes are off to a 3-0 start for the first time since 1992.
* Freshman middle blocker Kim Turner is hitting .426 after three matches this season.
* Four Utes are hitting over .400 for the season, and as a team, Utah leads the conference with a .348 hitting percentage.

Wyoming Cowgirls (2-3, 0-0 MWC)
Head Coach: Susan Judge
Overall Record: 97-99 (7th year)
School Record: 60-67 (5th year)
* Freshman Michele Rauter finished her first collegiate start with 15 kills, nine digs and a .226 hitting percentage vs. Oregon. Rauter leads the team with nine service aces and ranks second on the team in kills with 51 (2.68 per game). Rauter is tied for the conference lead with nine aces.
* Sophomore setter Stephanie Snyder, a transfer from North Dakota, leads team in assists at 10.22 per game after starting three matches for the Cowgirls.
* The Cowgirls had a season high .325 hitting percentage (40-13- 83) in their victory over Sam Houston State.
* Senior outside hitter Jamie Burke ranks sixth in the MWC for digs with 2.89 per game.