Lady Rebels picked to place fifth in Mountain West

The UNLV women's basketball team was picked to finish fifth in the 2015-16 Mountain West preseason poll, which was released Wednesday by the league office.

Voting on the preseason poll, as well as the preseason all-conference team, were all 11 head coaches and select media members.

Colorado State, the regular-season champion the past two years, is the preseason favorite for the second straight year, with 237 points and 12 first-place votes. Following the Rams was New Mexico with seven first-place votes and 221 points.

Boise State was next with 215 points and six first-place votes. Fresno State was in fourth with 215 points, and UNLV followed with 138.

Rounding out the poll, San Diego State was sixth with 135 points, Wyoming seventh (125), San Jose State eighth (93), Utah State ninth (79), UNR 10th (78) and Air Force 11th (26).

Wyoming senior guard Marquelle Dent was named MW Preseason Player of the Year. She was joined on the All-MW team by Boise State junior guard Brooke Pahukoa, Colorado State junior guard Ellen Nystrom, New Mexico senior forward Khadijah Shumpert and Utah State sophomore guard Funda Nakkasoglu.