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.
Outstanding graduate student Brianna Ford garnered a double-double from her outside hitter position, getting 13 kills and ten digs. Freshman outside hitter Sjakkie Donkers led in kills with 14 while sophomore libero Samantha Glenn tallied 12 digs. Middle blocker graduate senior Paige Reagor tallied five blocks in four sets and setter Mollie Blank had an efficient 37 as the graduate student gave time to the bench and didn't play a full four sets.
Utah Tech, who was struggling coming in but battling for a third seed with Utah Valley, was the season finale for the Mavs. UTA repeated their sweep performance from an earlier home match in Arlington. After a close first set, where UTA won by the bare minimum, the Mavericks held the Trailblazers to 18 and 21 in the final two sets for the sweep.
In the first two sets, it was back-and-forth early. The first stayed that way until the end when UTA needed two set points to win but got there at the end. In the second, the Mav volleyballers had a steady effort, getting a multi-point lead early and basically exchanging points the rest of the way for the 2-0 lead. In the third set, UT came out on fire and led 7-1 and wanted to send the match to a fourth set. Credit to UTA for weathering the storm and finishing the match on a 24-14 run to close out the undefeated conference season at 16-0.
This is the highest amount of teams on any conference schedule for an undefeated UTA volleyball squad. From 1987 to 1990, the Mavs went 7-0 in the Southland Conference. From 1984-86, they went 6-0 in the SLC. A 3-0 and a separate 4-0 were the two years prior when the NCAA started sponsoring women's sports.
There were a handful of occasions where UTA got close to 1.000 percent but missed it by a small margin. In 1991, they were 8-1. A loss to Southwest Texas State, now just Texas State, was the first time ever a team from the Southland beat UTA in the regular season. That SWT team went undefeated and won the conference tourney.
In 1998, the Mavericks went 19-1. A road loss in five sets to UT San Antonio accounted for the lone loss. Texas State again spoiled the Mav season in the tournament final in four sets, going to the NCAA's as the third seed in the SLC. In 2002, UTA went 18-2. Road losses to SFA in four and Lamar in five sets are the two losses. In that year, UTA won the tournament as every match went to the higher seed. It also marks the last time the Mavs made the NCAA's.
Since then, prior to this year, the best conference winning percentage was .750 on three occurrences. There were good seasons, just not great. Of course, this year's adjective has yet to be determined. Great would entail an NCAA tourney trip. Good is a solid way to define the regular season. Knowing what I know about the program and the players themselves, that is the benchmark they have set.
The conference tournament starts on Thursday. As the number one seed, UTA will square off against Abilene Christian. All-time, the Mavs are 14-4-1 against the Wildcats. UTA swept them twice in the regular season. Other than a win against the second-best team in the WAC standings, they have beat who they should and that's about it.
It has been apparent to me as the season has wound on, there is a clear delineation of teams in the WAC. UTA, second seed Grand Canyon, third seed Utah Valley and fourth seed Utah Tech are head and shoulders above sixth seed Southern Utah, seventh seed Seattle and eighth seed ACU. Fifth seed California Baptist is going to be an outlier. A broadcast said they faced injury troubles at the beginning of the year leading to their 0-12 non-conference record. They took UTA to five in Riverside, California and grabbed a set in Arlington. Many of the six sets UTA did win were close.
If Utah Tech is the victor, they certainly gave UTA all they could handle twice, despite the end results being sweeps. The margin of error isn't very big.
Should UTA get past the second round, the opposite bracket offers no comfort either, GCU lost six sets to one in the regular season and were pegged the preseason favorites. They'll certainly be glad to have a third shot at the Mavs. Utah Valley has ended UTA's season the last two years and are certainly capable of doing so again.
The WAC doesn't reseed after each round and UTA will face the UT/CBU winner should they dispatch ACU. While the 16-0 mark is great, this conference tournament is not going to be a cakewalk by any stretch. I suspect whoever wins it will have a minimum of two hard fought matches.
Call me paranoid, but recent history has made any confidence in the postseason a mirage for me.
All-time, UTA is 15-11 in conference tournament semi-finals. But the bulk of the wins came early in UTA's tenure in the NCAA and SLC. Since their last NCAA appearance in the 2002 season, the Mavericks are only 1-6 in those semi-final matches. Seven semi-final appearances in 21 years are okay, but certainly below UTA's historical average.
After that semi-final win in UTA's first year in the Sun Belt, they lost to...Texas State. All-time UTA is 10-6 in conference tourney finals. Using recent history, they are just 0-1 in tourney finals since the 2003 season.
The other wrinkle is that the Mavs are hosting this year conference capper. Arlington has been the host site five times. Four in the Southland and once in the Sun Belt. In those five years, UTA is 2-4 overall. In the semifinals, they have a 2-1 record and are 0-2 in the finals. In 2005, they hosted but did not qualify for the postseason.
The journey starts at College Park Center on Thursday. It is set to be the second time the venue will host. The first serve is set for 7 pm. The two matches following are at 3 and 6 pm on Friday and the championship match is 6 pm on Saturday.
Wanted to add the following but felt it didn't fit the flow. I'd expect Brianna Ford to be named Player of the Year, Mollie Blank to earn Setter of the Year and J.T. Wenger to earn Coach of the Year.
ReplyDeleteI'd vote for her based on what I saw, but don't know how others view it, but Sjakkie Donkers is a good candidate for Freshman of the Year as well.