Attendance High

With the Seattle match in the books, the UT Arlington volleyball squad concluded its home schedule for the 2023 season. While the conference portion has contained a bit of a disappointment, there team has set a record that I'll end the post with. 

First, a mild recap. The team held its own against the majority of teams they should have. The earned a road sweep over Utah Valley, road wins against Seattle (3-1), Southern Utah (3-2) and an upset over UT Rio Grande Valley (3-1). They had home wins over California Baptist (3-0), Tarleton (3-2), Utah Valley (3-1) and Seattle (3-0).

The had a few losses to teams that the Mavericks are superior to on paper. A road and home loss to Stephen F. Austin (0-3 and 1-3 respectively) along with home losses to Grand Canyon and UTRGV (1-3 in both) weren't unexpected. However, UTA was upset twice and it is really putting a damper in the standings for the Mavs. Abilene Christian and Utah Tech followed the same formula as the Mavericks went up 2-0, before losing the last three sets. The set scores for the ACU match were 25-19, 25-13, 20-25, 22-25, 15-17 while the Trailblazers were 25-21, 25-22, 19-25, 13-25 and 10-15.

Briana Brown missed six matches, likely accounting for some of that inconsistency. She's averaging almost three kills per set. She is an integral part of the attack and hits the ball very hard. She'd be all-conference caliber if she could limit the errors. With all-conference outside hitter in Brianna Ford, middle blocker Paige Reagor and setter Mollie Blank, the Maverick offense is quite potent. Brown's health will be very important to any postseason run.

Allie Well, the graduate student libero, leads the defensive effort with nearly four digs per set. She recently set the Maverick all-time digs record in the home Seattle match, though she did play one more year than the remainder of the list. Ford is second on the team in digs at a quarter less than 3 per set. 

If everyone is playing well and, more importantly, consistently, this may be the best Maverick team in over a decade. 

Fans showed up for it too. Counting the two matches that had to be played in an AISD facility, the Mavericks 14 home matches drew an average of 921 fans per contest, tying the 1988 squad for best regular season turnout. The '88 edition also hosted an NCAA tournament game, which upped the total season average to 970. This year's total also contains a match that registered zero in the box score, a first-game double-header against Presbyterian. That is a common practice among NCAA member institutions, but we all know that there were fans in the front half. The second game drew 1,080. 

Every College Park Center match save the season finale drew greater than 1,000. That '88 season was bolstered by a solo match that drew near 2,400. Only one other match drew above 1,000 that year and that was the NCAA match. Several did get in the 900's however. 

Ten 1,000+ matches in a single season set another attendance record, beating the four matches over 1,000 that were set last year. Eight matches from the 2023 slate are in the Mavericks all-time top 20. (I am missing a handful of matches from the early 1990's, one from the late '80's and everything prior to 1987. I'm confident that the majority of the list is accurate, but there could be a match or two that is not in my records.

The 12,890 total fans in a single season is a single season total program record, beating that 1988 squad with the NCAA tourney game by a couple hundred. 

Finally, while it won't count anywhere officially, unless the AISD facility matches are moved into the neutral match category, the 1,014 average (even counting that zero against Presbyterian) would be an all-time high in any capacity. 

I think the attendance numbers are driven by UTA's current conference affiliation. In the Sun Belt, there was one school that traveled well, Texas State. Otherwise, the SBC West didn't travel. The Tarleton and SFA match drew over 1,200. ACU was over 1,100. The other WAC opponents at home, UTRGV, GCU, CBU and UVU topped 1,000, though I only believe UTRGV brought any fans/parents. 

The Mavs have two tough road slates left: CBU then GCU. If UTA beats CBU, they are near a lock for the fourth seed, though there are scenarios if various teams go a highly unlikely 0-2 or 2-0 where UTA could climb to third or fall to fifth. Meanwhile GCU is pretty much locked for second, but have a very low chance to tie SFA for the conference title. In short, if UTA wins against CBU, they are pretty much locked in for fourth. A loss means they are near locked in for fifth.   

Congrats to Allie Wells, UTA's all-time digs leader and the 2023 squad that played in front of the highest home crowd total in program history.