DAVIS, Calif. — With nine days remaining until the start of the regular season, the Mountain West Conference has released its volleyball preseason team and poll. UC Davis volleyball was well represented ahead of their first season in the conference, with senior Mia Starr and junior Ximena Cordero Barr being named to the seven player list. 

Coming off of last year's regular season championship, the Aggies were also predicted to finish second in the standings with 80 points and four first place votes.

The reigning Big West Setter of the Year, Starr ended the 2025 season with a myriad of accolades. In addition to being named First Team All-Conference, Starr was also named Setter of the Week four different times.

With 1,088 assists on the season, Starr led the entire conference while also being top 50 in the country. Entering her senior season with 2,981 career assists, she sits just 19 assists from becoming the sixth player in program history to record 3,000 assists in a career.

Starting in all 28 matches a season ago in her first year as the Aggie libero, Cordero Barr has already achieved an impressive resume in her first two collegiate seasons. After a Big West All-Freshman Team accolade in 2024, she was named the conference's Libero of the Year while also achieving First Team All-Conference honors.

Against UC Irvine on Oct. 4, she had a career-high 35 digs in a back-to-back affair with the Anteaters, which earned her a second straight Big West Defensive Player of the Week honor. A month later, in a home game with CSUN, she broke her career-high again with 36 digs, banking another Defensive Player of the Week award to make it three on the season.

The second place selection marks the highest ranking the team has achieved in a preseason poll going back to the Aggies' time in the Big West.

The full Mountain West Team and Poll can be found below:

MW PRESEASON TEAM

• Bella Nunez, So., S/OPP, Grand Canyon
• Cha'lei Reid, So., OH, Hawai'i
• Ximena Cordero Barr, Jr., L, UC Davis
• Mia Starr, Sr., S, UC Davis
• Jaida Harris, Jr., OH, UNLV
• Ema Uskokovic, Gr., OH, UTEP
• Paige Lauterwasser, Sr., OH, Wyoming

MW PRESEASON PLAYER OF THE YEAR

• Jaida Harris, Jr., OH, UNLV

PREDICATED ORDER OF FINISH

• UTEP (4)                  84 points
• UC Davis (4)            80 points
• Grand Canyon (2)    70 points
• Wyoming                  69 points
• Hawai'i                      67 points
• UNLV                        53 points
• San Jose State         40 points
• Air Force                   36 points
• Nevada                     26 points
• New Mexico              25 points

ABOUT UC DAVIS ATHLETICS 

UC Davis, ranked No. 2 among public universities by the Wall Street Journal in the value of a college degree, is home to 40,000 undergraduate students and 12,000 employees. Ranked top in the United States in agriculture and forestry as well as No. 1 in veterinary medicine, UC Davis is located in a true California college town nestled between world-class destinations such as the San Francisco Bay Area, Napa Valley and Lake Tahoe. Over 650 Aggie student-athletes compete in 25 Division I varsity sports, with 16 sports transitioning to the Mountain West Conference beginning in 2026–27. 

For more information, visit https://ucdavisaggies.com/.