COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo – Senior Laura Beach was named to the 2016 Preseason All-Mountain West volleyball team, announced by the conference Wednesday morning. The MW also released its predicted order of finish for the upcoming season, in which the Cowgirls were selected to finish third out of 11 teams.
Beach, a middle blocker from Lakewood, Colo., is one of seven student-athletes and the lone representative from Wyoming to be selected to the team, voted on by the 11 head coaches in the MW. She started in all 30 matches a season ago and had 11 with double-figure kills. Beach, earned All-MW honors for the second time after her junior campaign, and finished the year with 273 kills and 110 blocks. Additionally, she is the all-time leader in hitting percentage (.360) for Wyoming.
After concluding the 2015 season in third place in the MW and just missing the NCAA tournament, UW was selected to finish third overall in the conference in 2016. Wyoming fell behind Boise State and front-runner Colorado State. It marks the third-straight season that CSU has been named the preseason favorite. CSU earned six of the possible 11 first-place votes, while Boise State received four and UW earned one.
UW’s annual Brown and Gold Scrimmage will take place Friday at 6:30 p.m. MT, in the UniWyo Sports Complex. The Cowgirls begin their season on Aug. 26-27 at the Purdue Mortar Board Premier in West Lafayette, Ind.
2016 All-Mountain West Preseason Women’s Volleyball Team
Laura Beach, Wyoming
Sierra Nobley, Boise State
Maddy O’Donnell, Boise State
Maddi Osburn, Boise State
Alexandra Poletto, Colorado State
Bree Hammel, UNLV
Alexis Patterson, UNLV
Preseason Player of the Year: Sierra Nobley, OH, Jr., Boise State
2016 Mountain West Preseason Women’s Volleyball Coaches’ Poll
1 Colorado State
2 Boise State
3 Wyoming
4 New Mexico
5 San Diego State
6 UNLV
7 Nevada
8 Fresno State
9 Utah State
10 San Jose State
11 Air Force
