No need to dance around this one with a fancy introduction. As the title indicates, the UT Arlington volleyball squad recently released their schedule for the upcoming season. Aside from a couple of spotlights here and there, nothing particularly stands out to me.
For the non-conference portion, I will highlight the four tournaments, the participants and their conference. I will also briefly look at the teams finish in the prior year.
The Mavericks open the season at the Sawyer Camillo Memorial Classic in Lafayette, Louisiana. There, they will play the Missouri Valley's Murray State Racers, the Southwestern Athletic Conference's Jackson State Tigers and twice former conference rival Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns from the Sun Belt Conference.
MSU was a game under .500 overall in 2023, 13-14, with a 7-11 MVC mark, placing 9th out of 12. JSU finished 17-13 and 10-6 in conference, good for 5th in the 12-team SWAC. Louisiana, arguably the best non-P5 team in the state, was 19-13, 9-7 SBC last year. The Sun Belt used divisional play to divide the 14 teams, but based on an unbalanced record, they'd have been 7th.
The second week sees College Park Center's debut as the UTA Classic welcomes the West Coast Conference's Santa Clara Broncos, the Southland's McNeese State Cowboys and the Sun Belt's Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks, also a twice conference foe.
The Broncos had a tough test in conference last year, but were better outside WCC play, 12-16 overall and 4-12 inside the WCC, a tie for sixth of nine. McNeese, a long-time conference rival, was 16-17 and 13-5. In a weak SLC, the Cowboys were tied for third of ten Universities. ULM, arguably the worst team in the SBC year in and out, saw a '23 mark of 7-24, 3-13, good for 13th.
Springfield, Missouri would be the next stop, with a second Missouri Valley squad in Missouri State, the Atlantic 10's Saint Louis Billikens and the Weber State Wildcats out of the Big Sky Conference.
The host Bears were 16-16, 9-9, good for 7th in the MVC. SLU garnered a 16-16 overall record with an Atlantic-10 mark of 8-10, a fifth place tie out of ten. WSU carried the best win total of UTA opponents to this point at 21-10, a fourth-place mark was the result of a 13-5 BSC record. There are ten BSC squads.
The fourth and final non-conference tournament takes place just down the street, literally. For the first time since 2012, UTA with face the Texas Christian University Horned Frogs. The Rice Owls out of the American Athletic Conference are the penultimate non-conference opponent, while The Summitt League's Denver Pioneers close out non-conference play in Fort Worth.
As the only Power -Five team on UTA's schedule, the Big 12 rep was 17-15 last year, 8-10 in conference play. The Horned Frogs completed a tie for eighth of 13 teams. Rice's 2023 season was an 18-11 record and a 12-7 conference mark, good for third in the AAC West and a tie for fifth overall. DU was 14-12 on the '23 season, but a much better 12-4 in their conference, good for a four-way tie for first.
Then there's the 16-game Western Athletic Conference schedule. The conference schedule is my preference: a balanced one where every school plays every other school in the WAC at home and the road.
Volleyball will be the most impacted by the conference affiliation changes this year. The loss of UT Rio Grande Valley, arguably the only program at UTRGV that has been consistently competitive in Division I the last several years, and Stephen F. Austin on the conference slate is going to be felt. The WAC will likely regress in the conference rankings.
UTA plays more at home early in the conference slate. After the Mavs open WAC play on the road for two games, they play five of six at CPC. The final three matches are on the road. Depending on how the conference race is shaping up, that could play a big factor in the final standings.
Travel partners are apparent with no surprises: California Baptist & Grand Canyon, Seattle & Utah Valley and Utah Tech & Southern Utah. UTA, Abilene Christian and Tarleton State are within two to three hours, so each could be interchangeable in a pairing. If the WAC were smart, to further reduce costs, time willing, they'd look at making the Texas Road swing a travel trio. That said, I'm sure there'd be competitive issue associated with that. UTA has DFW and Love at their disposal, so solo trips to UTA aren't as difficult. Tarleton benefits similarly, though they are further on the periphery.
Here's the standings from last year:
- SFA 16-0, 29-5
- GCU 13-3, 23-8
- UTRGV 12-4, 19-12
- UTA 9-7, 21-11
- UVU 8-8. 12-17
- TSU 7-9, 16-15
- CBU 7-9, 14-14
- ACU 6-10, 11-18
- UT 5-11, 9-17
- SU 3-13, 7-19
- SUU 2-14, 6-20
Some notes from the schedule I see early on:
- Not the toughest of schedule's based on last year. While that doesn't translate to the following year, if UTA is going to compete in the Western Athletic Conference, a .600 non-conference winning percentage is needed.
- For the first time since the 2019 season, North Texas is not on the schedule.
- TCU is the first P5 on the schedule since a three-set loss to Washington State in 2019.
- There are no mid-week contests this upcoming season.
- Denver marks the fourth non-conference school that UTA used to share a conference with
- The two most recent WAC departures in Stephen F. Austin and UT Rio Grande Valley are not on the schedule.
- UTA's biggest rival in the Sun Belt, Texas State, continues on the schedule no-show. Though in the era of campus tournaments taking the bulk, if not all, of the non-conference schedule, that isn't surprising.
The Mavs have an exhibition in roughly a month against Dallas Baptist on August 23, before traveling to Lafayette to open the season versus Murray State on August 30th. First serve for the season is at 3 pm.
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