By CHRISTINE JACKSON
Don’t be surprised if you see a lot of girls walking around in short Spandex this Thanksgiving break. BYU is hosting the first ever Mountain West Conference volleyball tournament from Wednesday to Saturday, and all games will be held in the Smith Fieldhouse.
After a strong season finish, BYU’s conference championship team is ready for tournament play. Its first match will be Wednesday night at 7 p.m. against eighth-seeded Wyoming.
The semi-finals are scheduled for 4:30 and 7 p.m. Friday, and the finals are scheduled for 4 p.m. Saturday. MWC commissioner Craig Thompson announced that KBYU-TV will televise both the semi-finals and the finals of the tournament. He said that volleyball is very deserving of the coverage and he is excited to be able to reach such a large audience.
Out of the eight teams in the conference, BYU is ranked first, followed by Colorado State, Utah, Air Force, New Mexico, San Diego State, UNLV and Wyoming. The conference season has seen a lot of upsets, and the top three times were the only ones placed as the coaches pre-season poll predicted. The final matches between the fourth through seventh place teams resulted in two ties between Air Force and New Mexico and SDSU and UNLV.
Saturday’s championship could be a rematch between No. 1 BYU and No. 2 Colorado State. The teams have each taken one match from each other this season and BYU head coach Elaine Michaelis said the team will need to be prepared.
“It’ll be a good battle against them again,” she said. “We’ll find some different things we can do against them.”
This is the first time BYU has hosted the tournament, which does not decide the conference champion, but may influence NCAA tournament placement. The MWC does not have an automatic bid to the tournament, however.
The team is looking forward to being home for the holidays and among their fans since this is the first time that the team will not travel to Las Vegas where the WAC conference tournament was usually held. Outside hitter Natalie Whitaker said that this is the first time in six years she has not spent Thanksgiving in Vegas.
After regular season play, BYU has a record of 24-3 and a conference record of 13-1. They are on a ten-match winning streak.
The team will have a week to rest after the tournament before hosting the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament. Michaelis said the conference tournament will be a good chance to get ready for the post-season.
“We have a lot at stake still,” she said. “We’re getting ready for post-season play and it’s nice to play good, strong teams,” she said. “It helps you prepare for the tournament. We’ll have three matches in the week and that’s a test of our ability to play every night.”
