UNLV hoping to lock up berth

As millions of Americans sit down for Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday, the 25th-ranked UNLV volleyball team will be taking the floor to begin its quest for a Mountain West Conference tournament championship.

The Rebels, who have not dropped a league game at home this season, will host the tournament at Cox Pavilion beginning Wednesday and continuing through Saturday.

Fourth-year UNLV coach Allison Keeley said she’s optimistic about her team’s chances. Though the Rebels dropped critical road matches to Utah and Brigham Young over the weekend, they still managed to salvage a second-place league finish.

“I’m still happy with our draw,” said Keeley, whose second-seeded team will open against seventh-seeded Wyoming (12-13, 6-10). “We’re just happy we’re one of the top two seeds. That makes things a little easier.”

Easier, indeed. The Rebels, who have beaten every team in the conference at least once, have dominated league opponents at home. Though Keeley said the tournament atmosphere will negate some benefits of playing at home, she thinks her team still could gain from the arrangement.

“It’s nice to be at home,” said Keeley, whose team had won 10 consecutive matches prior to last weekend’s setbacks. “I do think it gives us an advantage, but we still have a lot of work to do.”

Top seeded Colorado State (21-6, 13-3) will open against either San Diego State or Air Force on Thursday, depending on the results of Wednesday’s play-in game. The Rebels dropped a 3-1 road decision to the Rams in September before answering with a 3-0 home victory on Oct. 25.

Though Keeley said her players expect to make the finals, she warned that they must be careful not to overlook anyone.

“It’s critical that we beat Wyoming in that first game,” Keeley said. “That’s going to be our focus. If we play a team like BYU, we’re already prepared because we just played them.”

Other pairings will feature third-seeded BYU against No. 6 New Mexico, and fourth-seeded Texas Christian against No. 5 Utah.

Though her team went 0-for-2 in its final road trip over the weekend, Keeley said there were lessons learned in defeat.

“I think there are specific things that have to happen,” the coach said. “Things that we’ve been working on that we didn’t do (in Utah). We’ll make the adjustments.”

Guiding the offense this weekend will be senior middle blocker Lauren Miramontes and senior outside hitter Maria Aladjova. Miramontes leads the league in points scored (5.31 per game), and is third with a 4.51 kill average. Aladjova, meanwhile, is seventh in scoring with 4.86 points per game.

Junior Melody Nua, whose 13.32 assists average is third best in the MWC, will look to feed the front row, while senior Jada Walker (5.6 digs) leads the defense.

The Rebels think they’ve secured an at-large NCAA tournament berth.

“Our goal is to get to the NCAAs,” said Keeley, who is attempting to guide UNLV into the postseason for the first time in the program’s history. “We want to leave no room for question. We’d rather take care of things by winning (the tournament) outright.”

Brigham Young and New Mexico will face off at 11 a.m. on Thursday, with the Rebels scheduled to take on the Cowboys 40 minutes after that match ends.