SAN DIEGO – San Diego State junior Taylor Underwood was named to the seven-player All-Mountain West preseason volleyball team in a vote of the league’s 11 head coaches. In addition, the Aztecs were pegged for a seventh-place finish in the conference’s preseason coaches poll, as announced Wednesday by the MW office in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
A 2023 transfer from DePaul, Underwood made a huge splash in her first year on The Mesa, earning first-team all-Mountain West honors after finishing sixth in the league with 3.38 kills and 3.88 points per set against conference foes during the regular season. The Norco, California, native compiled double-digit kill totals in 16 of 18 MW matches and led the Aztecs with 20 service aces (0.28/set) vs. MW opponents.
In a home match against Air Force, Underwood (.481) smashed a career-high 31 kills, which marked the third-highest figure in the conference during the 2023 campaign. Additionally, the Aztec opposite hitter set a school record for put-aways in the rally scoring era (since 2001) and logged the highest kill total by an SDSU player since Martina Vitkova-Engels (37) and Carrie Mapes (33) combined for 70 non-returnables in the Aztecs' five-set victory over Wyoming in the first round of the Western Athletic Conference tournament during the sideout era on Nov. 25, 1997.
For all matches, Underwood led the Aztecs with 3.12 kills per set, surpassing the double-digit plateau in that statistic in 20 of 29 contests. She also ranked sixth in the MW with an average of 0.35 services per set (37 overall) during the regular season.
Earlier in the year, Underwood served up a career-high five aces in a pair of victories over Denver and Eastern Washington, which was tied for the sixth-best output in the conference last season. She was one of just three players to appear in all 107 sets for the Scarlet and Black last year and was the lone Aztec to start all 29 matches.
Following the 2023 campaign, Underwood was named to the College Sports Communicators (CSC) academic all-district team before earning a spot on the 13-player Mountain West traveling squad that competed in the annual Global Challenge this past summer in Europe.
Meanwhile, in the 2024 MW preseason coaches poll, the Aztecs were slotted seventh after collecting 47 points, topping New Mexico (39 pts), San José State (32 pts), Air Force (25 pts) and Nevada (12 pts).
Colorado State (98 pts) finished comfortably ahead of defending regular-season champion Utah State (84 pts) for the top spot, garnering eight first-place votes compared to the Aggies’ two. In addition, Boise State (77 pts) occupied the third position, followed by defending conference tournament champion Fresno State (71 pts) and UNLV (65 pts), which received the remaining first-place vote, while Wyoming (56 pts) was sixth.
The top six teams in the conference standings will qualify for the Mountain West Championship, set for Nov. 27-29 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
San Diego State opens its 2024 season with an exhibition match against UC San Diego on Saturday, Aug. 24 at 5 p.m. inside Aztec Court at Peterson Gym. The Aztecs begin their regular-season schedule the following weekend when they compete in the Idaho State Tournament, Aug. 30-Sept. 1, squaring off against the host Bengals, CSUN and Seattle in succession.
Season tickets for SDSU's 12-match home schedule are now on sale and may be purchased HERE.
2024 MOUNTAIN WEST PRESEASON VOLLEYBALL TEAM
| Player | Class | Pos | School |
| Taylor Underwood | Jr. | OPP | San Diego State |
| Paige Bartsch | Sr. | OPP | Boise State |
| Emery Jerman | Sr. | S | Colorado State |
| Malaya Jones | Sr. | OPP | Colorado State |
| Dionnii Fraga | So. | L | Fresno State |
| Tierney Barlow | Jr. | MB | Utah State |
| Adna Mehmedovic | Sr. | OPP | Utah State |
MW PRESEASON PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Paige Bartsch, Sr., OPP, Boise State
2024 MW PRESEASON POLL (First-place votes in parentheses)
|
1. |
Colorado State (8) |
98 |
|
2. |
Utah State (2) |
84 |
|
3. |
Boise State |
77 |
|
4. |
Fresno State |
71 |
|
5. |
UNLV (1) |
65 |
|
6. |
Wyoming |
56 |
|
7. |
San Diego State |
47 |
|
8. |
New Mexico |
39 |
|
9. |
San José State |
32 |
|
10. |
Air Force |
25 |
|
11. |
Nevada |
12 |