It was road-trip week starting in Seattle on Thursday. Much like the 3-0 sweep a couple weeks ago in Arlington, the Redhawks were met the same fate but unlike the Arlington affair, SU was not an easy out in the first two sets. While UTA scored 25 in both, the Redhawks got the maximum points a set loser can have each time. In the third, UTA pushed aside two straight 25-23 wins and secured the match with a comfy 25-13 win, I'll save the individual accolades for later, but it was the same ladies who have been doing the same damage all year.
On Saturday, the Mavericks faced their first real stress in conference play as the Utah Valley Wolverines hosted UTA. After six straight sweeps prior to that affair, UTA lost the first two sets to UVU. You'd have to go back to the second conference match to get to a five-set contest involving UTA. That is what they would be shooting for to keep their perfect conference mark.
Against California Baptist, the only team to take UTA to five sets, UTA won the first two before narrowly losing the next two. Against UVU, the lost the first two as they only scored 21 and 20 respectively. Now the first set was a little of a misnomer as the Wolverines scored the last seven when UTA had a three-point lead. In the second, UTA looked a step behind their opponent. I hadn't seen that in WAC play so far.
But the Mavericks came through in the last three sets. Graduate Student Outside Hitter Brianna Ford garnered seven kills in the third set, setting the pace for the set win. The Wolverines also hurt their cause with a combined error total of nine. Some of those were due to UTA's pressure and defense, but not all. The 17 points were the lowest UVU would score in a full set.
The Wolverines contributed ten more combined errors in set four. The theme was similar as the Mavs pressed UVU into many of them. The Mavs spread the wealth offensively and Graduate Senior Mollie Blank tallied five kills from her setter position. Blank was instrumental in causing the Utah Valley defense to look off balance.
UTA left little doubt in the fifth set as they raced off to the first six points. The match became essentially the two teams trading points until the end in 15-11 match win. The Mavs completed the reverse sweep, as they call it when a team grabs the last three sets of a five-set match. Ford did her normal stuff to be atop the leaderboard in kills with 19 and was second in digs with 17. Sophomore Libero Samanatha Glen had one more to leads all players with 18. Blank had 46 assists while Graduate Student Middle Blocker Paige Reagor led all with ten blocks.
While UTA won by the bare minimum in the first two sets against Seattle, they put the pedal to the metal in set three and won as they should for a team that is now 20-2 overall and 10-0 in conference. SU is sitting at a three-way tie for sixth at 3-7. Only one game separates Seattle from last place. Those first two sets are a slight concern, but winning 25-23 counts the same as 25-12.
Somehow, Utah Valley has had UTA's number the last two years. After getting a 3-0 win in Orem, Utah and a 3-1 win in Arlington last year, the Wolverines beat UTA in the first round of the conference tournament in Orem that year in five sets. In 2022, the Mavs lost 3-1 in Orem and ended the UTA's season in Edinburgh, Texas by the same score.
As happens a lot in situations where a team has faced minimal adversity over the seasons, I wonder if UTA was starting to put it on cruise control. On paper, they are the better team most nights, but as countless examples have shown over time, upsets happen.
My hope is the small speed bump at Seattle and the scare in Orem will be a jolt. As I have referenced many times that in prior years, the team would have an up and down match where they win a set by eight, then lose one by ten. That has been rare this year. 14 of 22 matches have resulted in a sweep for the Mavericks.
While we generally know who Seattle is as a team, Utah Valley is the enigma. They had the second-best non-conference record, but that is definitely an apples-to-oranges comparison. They are currently in fourth, but have losses in sweeps to California Baptist, Grand Canyon and Utah Tech. Two of those three are at the top of the standings, but CBU has three wins on the year. I still think the standings as they are now with UTA at one, GCU in second, Utah Tech sitting in third and UVU at fourth are the clear top four of the conference. So judging the entire match on the first two sets might be an error. In the end, regardless of the start, they did what they had to do, which pretty much sums up the theme of the year so far.
There is no match Thursday. California Baptist comes to Arlington on Saturday for a noon serve. After needing five sets in Riverside, California, UTA will look to sweep the season series. The first Monday WAC match comes to College Park Center against Abilene Christian. ACU hosted UTA the Mavs in mid-October and UTA need the first three sets for the win. First serve for that match in 6:30 pm. It is also the first sporting event of homecoming week.
If UTA is on cruise control, those matches will shine some light there. If not, these are teams UTA has handled convincingly, or should, and the Mavs will look to lock up the number one seed.
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