2024 Volleyball Season is Nigh

 The UT Arlington Athletic Department kicks off the 2024/25 athletic season later this week as the Volleyball team travels to their first match of the season. As is customary, the Western Athletic Conference released its preseason poll and as I alluded to a couple of blog entries ago, the Mavs have garnered respect in the conference.

To refresh, in the UTA hosting championship post, I mentioned the volleyball team is returning a lot of talent. In conjunction, the WAC lost two of its top four programs in Stephen F. Austin and UT Rio Grande Valley. Looking at who is returning, last year's results and recent historical performance, this year's preseason volleyball poll was about as easy as it gets, even in the transfer portal era. 

As we head into the season, here's what the prognosticator's think the final standings will look like, with first place votes in parenthesis:

The 2022/23 Women's Basketball Preview-Proven Talent

Unlike their counterpart on the men's side, everyone knows what the UT Arlington women's basketball team is bringing to College Park Center this year. After finishing second in the Sun Belt Conference at the conclusion of the regular season, the Mavericks dominated the conference tournament and made the NCAA tournament. I still stand by the post after the game where they were robbed in Iowa. That said, they have the talent to return. The team earned coach and player of the year honors. 

And both are back. 

WHAT WE KNOW

Player of the Year Starr Jacobs is returns. One of the most dominating seasons by a player to don a Maverick uniform, Jacobs averaged 21 points, over six rebounds, over two steals and almost two assists, all at the forward position. She also shot over 50 percent from the field. She was the player other teams tried to stop, and still put up those numbers. Jacobs plays an aggressive, active game. I'd list all of her accolades from last year, but it would double the length of this post. The fact that she's on the Becky Hammon pre-season player of the year watch list tells you all you need to know there.

The 2022/23 Men's Basketball Preview - a Whole Lotta Unknowns

To say there are a bunch of question marks heading into the 2022/23 UT Arlington men's basketball season is an understatement at best. There hasn't been a season with this amount of murkiness since I've been associate with the University. That creates challenges for this entry. But as we head into the latest college basketball season, UT Arlington fits in there somewhere. The unknowns just make it hard to see.

WHAT WE KNOW

Let's start with the knowns. Returning is graduate student guard Pedro Castro. He's back after sitting out most of last season with a back injury. It works out this year for the U, but had he been healthy, UTA would have been a lot more competitive in 2021/22. He averaged seven points and near 4 rebounds when he went out in mid-December. His last full season saw him average almost 15 points and near eight rebounds a game for Houston Christian in 2020/21. He did start his collegiate career at UTA. He redshirted in 2017/18 and played a season as a Mav in 2018/19 before transferring out.

2016 Sun Belt Volleyball Season is Nye!

After the summer break that seemed a bit longer than normal to me, UT Arlington is set kick its athletic year with the volleyball team competing in its first match of the year on Friday, concluding a tough first week of classes that begin on Thursday (phew).



The Sun Belt Conference released its preseason poll on Monday, so that's as good a place as any to start this entry. the 2016 season marks the first time the Sun Belt will go to divisional play since the Mavs joined the conference in 2013. Parenthesis is first place votes.