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.

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.

Top 10 moments in Maverick History

As we near the end of the summer break and the start of the 2022/23 athletic year, excitement is naturally building. Add in the fact that UTA is moving to a new home and will see new faces adds to that excitement.

In preparation for that start, I'm going to list the top 11 moments in Maverick Athletic history. For this list, I'm going to balance what the moment meant for the Department or the University as a whole, the general accomplishment's worth, the attention the accomplishment gathered and what it means today,. While the attention metric starts to sway the meter towards certain sports, I'm going to grade on a curve. I believe that if you are going to sponsor a sport, sponsor it to win. As such, any accomplishment is worthwhile.

Certain accomplishments could diminish others, for example, a postseason win could overshadow a previous high of first conference championship. Others are harder to grade, such as individual sports like the track and field programs. As such, I'm focusing primarily on team sports.

All that said, let's start the countdown.

Women's historic finish

I mentioned I'd get to this post in my last entry and after earning every bit of it, I know want to give the UT Arlington women's basketball team their proper accolades. The 2021/22 UTA women's basketball team may very well be the best in the history of the Athletic program.

UTA was picked third in the Sun Belt Conference pre-season poll, behind Troy and Louisiana. It was a hard year to predict the field as the SBC was coming off divisional play where the west didn't play the east. UTA's leading scorer was an unknown to the conference, which further complicated the prognostication.  

The Mavericks started the season with a 6-3 non-conference mark. The most notable win was a 61-56 mark over South Florida, who was ranked 13th in the nation at the time. It was UTA's first ever win over a ranked opponent. Other wins included Sam Houston St., Houston, North Texas, UNLV and Rice. The three losses were to Baylor, Kansas City and Oklahoma St.