By Tim Gudmundson
The women”s volleyball season is just around the corner. BYU was selected by the Mountain West Conference”s head coaches to win the Mountain West this year.
They received five first place votes compared to three for Colorado State. BYU edged last year”s regular season champion Colorado State by one point overall, 46 to 45.
The Cougars return four all-conference selections this year: Nina Puikkonen (MB), Sunny Tonga (OH), Jackie Bundy (OH) and Soraya Santos (MB).
The Cougars open off the season Friday, Aug. 31 at Washington. The game will be at 7 p.m.
The Cougars will then play in the Washington Tournament in Seattle. They will square off against Texas and Purdue on Saturday, Sept. 1. Those games will be at 10 a.m. and 5:30 p.m.
The Cougars” first home game will be on Labor Day, Sept. 3 against Rhode Island at 5 p.m. Then the Cougars will host and play in the Mizuno Classic. They will play Colorado on Thursday, Sept. 6 at 7 p.m. and Southwest Missouri St. on Saturday, September 8 at 7 p.m.
The team will travel to Honolulu, Hawaii to face Loyola Marymount and the University of Hawaii on Sept. 13 and 15, respectively. Both games will be at 7 p.m.
The Cougars” first conference game will be in Provo on Saturday, Sept. 20 against Utah. They stay at home to play UC Santa Barbara, who will come to town on Sept. 26. The Cougars will then host New Mexico and Air Force, who will be in town Sept. 28 and 29.
Oct. 5 marks the first road conference game for BYU. They will travel to Laramie to face Wyoming and on Oct. 6 they will be in Fort Collins to play Colorado St.
The Cougars will be back in Provo from Oct. 12 to Oct. 16. They will take on San Diego State, UNLV and Utah State.
BYU”s longest road trip of the year will start Oct. 19, when they will be in Salt Lake City to play Utah. They then play at Sacramento State on Oct. 25, followed by trips to Air Force, New Mexico and Weber State. Those games will be played on Oct. 26, 27 and 30, respectively.
The Cougars come back home Nov. 2 to play Colorado State. They will also take on Wyoming on Nov. 3.
BYU will play at UNLV on Nov. 9 and then play at San Diego State on Nov. 10.
The Mountain West Conference tournament will be held in Provo Nov. 15 to 17. The Cougars then travel to Long Beach, Calif. to play Cal Poly SLO and Long Beach State.
The NCAA volleyball tournament begins Nov. 30.
