What a Season

While I wanted this up sooner, this will likely be my last post about the 2024 UT Arlington volleyball team this year. The fact it comes in December is remarkable and a long time coming. A season to remember has finally ended in the 2024 NCAA volleyball tournament.

After completing an amazing run in the Western Athletic Conference tournament that culminated in an instant classic in the championship match between UTA and GCU, UTA took its WAC championship title to the NCAA Tournament Selection committee for an automatic berth.

Coming into Selection Sunday, UTA had a 29-2 record and a 43 RPI ranking. I have no memory of a higher ranking for either category. The Mavs won 26 in 2002 when I was a student broadcaster. There were 25 wins in 2006 and 2014. Ironically, both those teams lost in the tournament to the eventual champion, meaning a 26th win in either season would have been against the eventual winner. Also of note, both those years, the eventual tourney champ won a match in the NCAA tourney. Since the turn of the century, UTA's conference has won a match in the NCAA tourney three times. Two of those times were in 2006 and 2014. Undoubtedly, UTA played a role in getting those teams a favorable seed.

The Mavericks were sent down to Austin as the equivalent of the third seed like in what would occur in the baseball and softball tournaments. If it was similar to the basketball tournament, it would have been an 11 seed.

The UT Austin Longhorns were seeded third in their 16-team section of the bracket. There are four main sections in the bracket with 16 teams each. and only the top eight teams are seeded within the region. The University of Southern California was also sent to Austin as a six seed and that would be UTA's opponent.

Shooting Woes

I mentioned in the last basketball post that I was slowly starting to dislike the way I was covering some UT Arlington athletic events. I don't want this to be a source straight game recaps, but rather a place for opinions to be expressed regarding the UTA Intercollegiate Athletic Department. So I'm gonna try a different approach with my first women's basketball entry.

I had something typed up prior to Thanksgiving, but an outage caused the post to be deleted. I had a self-imposed deadline because of the holidays and really don't like it took this long for the first women's basketball blog entry to be posted. But it did change the tone of the entry somewhat as my first take has adjusted slightly after the Houston game, where some of the concerns and observations I had were challenged or disputed. 

At an overall record of 3-5, with only two of those wins against Division I, my initial impression is the Mavericks are underperforming compared to the preseason expectations. However, the schedule is definitely tiered. There are four losses to teams in the top half of DI and the fifth is to one that's seven spots from the top half.

The losses include a 73-54 setback at Arizona, 71-60 at Louisiana Tech, 93-65 at Arkansas, 73-55 at Purdue and a 71-46 drugging in Dallas by SMU. Arizona was a return trip in a home and home. La Tech was a part of the Western Athletic Conference / Conference USA scheduling alliance. I'm not certain of the rest, but it would appear they are guarantee games where that school writes a check for a one-and-done series at their place. 

The wins include a 105-35 home win against the National Christian Collegiate Athletic Association's Arlington Baptist, a too-close 73-71 road win at East Texas A&M (I love their name change to reflect their historic roots, BTW) and now a 61-57 home win at College Park Center, the fourth straight in the series for UTA.

Instant Classic

The UT Arlington Mavericks volleyball team is not only the Western Athletic Conference regular seasons champs, but the Tournament champs after Saturday's win against Grand Canyon University in the championship game.

It was a memorable weekend, one that would likely have an impact on the top ten moments entry, UTA competed in an instant classic in the championship match. It culminated three days of intense volleyball at College Park Center, and not just in matches involving UTA. 

The Mavericks opened the weekend against Abilene Christian in the one/eight seed match. Continuing the sweeps from the prior two matches of the year, UTA swept the Wildcats, winning 25-17, 25-18, 25-14. It was the exact dominant performance the average fan would expect from the first game or match of any sports tournament featuring the same seeds. It showed to me UTA was ready and came on a mission. 

However, after the first round was complete, I became very apprehensive.

Hoops at the Start Line

 It has been an interesting start to the 2024/25 basketball season for both the men and women. As it stands, basketball for either gender may be the hardest sports to determine how they will fare when evaluating the team in the offseason as well as the early portion of the non-conference season. The transfer portal just decimates rosters and creates a turnover unprecedented in the history of the NCAA.

I have been watching the games, wondering how to evaluate both of them. I don't want the appearance of ignoring either squad, so I'll just dive into the UT Arlington men's basketball team and follow one for the women soon. I'm going to try a different style with them and see which I like.

The men have faced two non-Division I teams at home, easily one of the ten best teams not in a Power 5 conference and two DI road games. I challenge anyone to look at those factors and come to a conclusion about a team.

UTA FB History: Vol. 8 Gm. 12 - It Ends Here

The final entry of This Day in UTA Football History is fairly straightforward when all qualifying seasons are on the table. In 2013, the final game of 1985, and therefore the program, occurred on this day in that season, as it was in the inaugural year of this blog. 

However, since it was covered in 2013, there were some interesting options on the table this year, though none were just outwardly striking. In 1963, the Arlington State Rebels lost to the Trinity Tigers 12-7 in San Antonio. That wrapped up a 1-8 season. In 1968, the UT Arlington Rebels beat the Lamar Tech Cardinals 37-20 to wrap up a 6-4, 3-1 mark in the Southland Conference. The prior game knocked the Rebs out of contention of the outright SLC championship race and dropped them out of the national polls. I still contend, looking at the stats, rosters and schedule results, the 1968 Rebels were one of the best all-time teams that ran into a couple of bad luck scenarios. 

But the game I will feature today is the finale of the 1974 Mavericks, though at the time, what would make this game distinct had yet to show itself.

Postseason Accolades

I mentioned in the comments of the last volleyball post that the UT Arlington Mavericks squad should be well represented. The awards and all-conference teams were announced by the Western Athletic Conference today and as a whole, it came to fruition.

I'll start with Player of the Year. While some teams had an impact player or two, it is hard to suppress what graduate student Brianna Ford did at her outside hitter position. She led the WAC in kills, kills per set, points and was fourth in hitting percentage, sixth in blocks, seventh in aces, ninth in blocks per set and tenth in digs. Were she playing on another team, some of those numbers would likely be higher as UTA spread the wealth around. UTA would have been good without her, but her presence on both the offensive and defensive side is what propelled the Mavs to their highest win total in three and a half decades.

Ford is the ninth Player of the Year in program history and the first since Olaya Pazo in 2002. 

Postseason Time

The regular season has concluded for all volleyball programs in the Western Athletic Conference. For the first time since a nine-match conference slate in the Southland Conference in 1992, UT Arlington has run the gamut undefeated.

Coming into the week, or rather, since my last blog post, UTA beat Tarleton for a 14-0 conference mark. With a Utah trip on the schedule, the Mavs were looking to make a mark in the history books.

Southern Utah has been on a slide of late and hosted on Thursday. The Thunderbirds took a set from UTA in Arlington and repeated that feat again, with UTA taking the other three sets. After a less-than-comfortable 25-21 set win, the Mavs and 'birds went toe-to-toe in set two, with neither team getting more than a three-point lead. At the end of the set, SUU staved off two set points for UTA and then claimed the set on their first try for a 26-24 win. They ended on a 4-0 run.

That appeared to upset UTA as the final two sets were won by 11 points each time and UTA moved one match away from perfection.