UTEP volleyball was voted to finish fourth in the West Division in the newly formatted 2020-21 Conference USA Preseason Poll, the league announced Thursday afternoon.
Senior outside hitter Cheyenne Jones was also selected to the 2020-21 C-USA Preseason Team after earning C-USA All Conference Second Team honors a season ago making her the first Miner to make the Preseason Team since Macey Austin in 2018.
In 2019, the Miners improved by eight wins to a 13-15 record (6-8, C-USA) in head coach Ben Wallis’s first year at the helm of the program and jumped 106 positions in the RPI rankings to 142.
In her 2019 All-Conference season, Jones was tied for the team lead in kills (259) and led the Miners in kills per set (2.62) in 99 sets played while registering a career-high 74 blocks. The Missoula, Montana, native had a near 100-kill improvement between her sophomore and junior campaigns and has seen an increase in her kill per set ratio each year she’s been in El Paso.
Jones also led UTEP’s outside hitters in kill percentage (.242).
2020-21 C-USA Preseason Poll
East
- WKU
- Marshall
- Florida Atlantic
- Charlotte
- Middle Tennessee
- FIU
- Old Dominion
West
- Rice
- North Texas
- UTSA
- UTEP
- UAB
- Louisiana Tech
- Southern Miss
2020-21 C-USA Preseason Team
Sydney Rowan, Charlotte
Fiorella Murillo, FIU
Sydney Nemtuda, Florida Atlantic
Ciara Debell, Marshall
Kayla Henley, Middle Tennessee
Rhett Robinson, North Texas
Nicole Lennon, Rice
Anota Adekunle, Rice
Paige Briggs, WKU
Lauren Matthews, WKU
Nadia Dieudonne, WKU
Cheyenne Jones, UTEP
Preseason Player of the Year
Lauren Matthews, WKU
