Mia Trejo races onto the softball field at UNLV for an afternoon practice with a smile from ear-to-ear. Her approach to the game is simple: Bring energy and enthusiasm, and drive in plenty of runs.

“You always have to remind yourself to have fun,” she says. “That’s when I’m the best version of myself, when I’m having fun like a kid.”

Trejo will go down as one of the best hitters in the history of the program, entering her final season earlier this month 11th all-time in career RBIs with 124, 11th in home runs with 22, sixth in walks with 86 and ninth with a .528 slugging percentage.

But the fifth-year senior insists she’s only concerned with one stat: NCAA Tournament appearances. The Rebels haven’t been to that postseason party since 2005.

This season could be different. UNLV was picked as the Mountain West Conference’s best team in a preseason poll of league coaches. The team returns 13 letter winners and eight starters, including three all-conference selections in Denise Armendariz, Jenny Bressler and Trejo. Last year’s team stumbled on the final weekend of the season, getting swept at UNR to finish in second place. And two seasons ago, UNLV had a 21-5 record and was primed to reach the tournament before the season shut down at the outset of the pandemic.

“For us, it’s a respect thing. We’ve earned the respect of the other coaches in this conference,” UNLV coach Kristie Fox says. “But it doesn’t mean anything, because we have to get it done between the lines. … This team has a lot of fight, and we’re going to need it going into the Mountain West Conference.”

One recent game, in particular, illustrated that fighting spirit.

Trailing visiting Hawaii 10-5 and down to its final out on February 12, UNLV rallied and tied the game on Janyssa Martin’s seventh-inning homer, then won 12-11 in extra innings.

Trejo says she never worried that UNLV would lose the game. Every player on the roster will tell you this UNLV team is built differently, she says.

There’s swagger in being one of the league’s best, determination to finally reach the tournament after two near misses and an ability to block out the pressure of the moment—largely because veterans like Trejo have paved the way with their energetic approach.

When Martin returned to the clubhouse after the February 12 comeback and picked up her cellphone, she discovered hundreds of text messages congratulating her, she says. Martin also hit a home run against nationally ranked BYU to start the season, helping UNLV start its campaign with five consecutive wins.

“That shows what we’re capable of,” Martin says. “Whether we’re up five runs or down five runs, we aren’t going to change [the approach]. We know what we can accomplish under pressure.”

That’s partially by Fox’s design. Early in the season, she’d purposely leave struggling pitchers in games or decline to pinch hit for cold batters, in order to gauge their ability to deal with adversity.

There won’t be a late-season collapse this May, UNLV’s players promise. “Last year, our destiny was truly in our hands, and we just didn’t get it done in that final weekend,” Fox says. “[The focus] is not wanting to feel that way again, so what are we going to do to stop it from happening?”

Fox, who’s in her fifth year leading the program, has slowly transformed UNLV from conference also-ran to a perennial contender. During her own playing days, she earned All-America honors at Arizona and won a pair of national titles, bringing a championship mentality to Las Vegas.

Fox’s approach has certainly worked with Trejo, who was recruited out of Tucson High Magnet School by the previous staff to play third base and pitch. The coach moved Trejo across the diamond to first base, where she has started every game since 2019 while contributing big hit after big hit. She has blasted a three-run home run in the win over BYU, delivered a walk-off RBI double against Kansas City on February 19 and then hit her second homer of the season the following day to help UNLV to a 7-2 start.

“For her, it is about confidence and keeping her mind right,” Fox says. “She has been able to do that for four years.”

Trejo has been an accomplished hitter since being introduced to the sport by her father in grade school. He became her hitting coach, teaching her the basics of the sport—and the importance of having fun, no matter the pressure of the moment.

“I don’t care if it’s a home run, a [hit] in the gap or a blooper over the infield, as long it drives in the run and as long as we win,” Trejo says.