Winning Streak Continues

 After a great start to season Lafayette, Louisiana, the UT Arlington Volleyball squad hosted its own tournament this past weekend. The streak of sweeps ended in the first match, but the winning streak is still going strong after a good showing. Like last week, the opponents may not have been at the top of the NCAA, but again, UTA took care of its business in a convincing manner.

That first match was a 3-2 win against Santa Clara. The first set was super tight early until UTA built a 16-11 lead. The Broncos chipped away, though the Mavs still led 22-19. SC scored the last three points though for the 26-24 win. In the second set, UTA cruised 25-15, before losing by a similar score in the third. A comfy 25-19 fourth set win forced a deciding fifth.

The Mavs jumped to an early 4-0 lead. After a timeout, Santa Clara claimed momentum, climbing to an 11-10 lead. Kudos to this experienced bunch of Mavs, they completed a 5-2 run to close out the match and move to 4-0. 

The Broncos were pegged eighth in the 11-team West Coast Conference. That may be a bit deceiving as the WCC is a very tough conference when it comes to volleyball. Pepperdine, a team UTA has beaten in the NCAA tourney, is the perennial favorites, but Santa Clara isn't a pushover, sitting at 3-2 to this point of the season. 

I feel I will be saying the same names all year, but Briana Ford led in kills with 25, digs with 15, Paige Reagor in blocks with four (a little below her per set average) and Mollie Blank in assists with 44.

With the hardest part of the UTA Classic out of the way, old Southland Conference foe McNeese State was on tap. UTA wouldn't lose another set the rest of the weekend, seeing the Cowboys tally 15, 17 and 20 respectively.

On Saturday, old SLC and Sun Belt Conference rival Louisiana-Monroe capped the tournament. Those who know understand completely how bad the ULM program is. Most of the State of Louisiana struggles, but the Warhawks are right there near the bottom. After limiting ULM to 13 in the first set, reserves came in and ULM got to 21 and 20 as the Mavs swept for their sixth win of the year.

This is the seventh time UTA has started 6-0, the most recent coming last year. Only twice in program history has there been an undefeated record seven matches into the season. Four of the seven times UTA has started 6-0 has resulted in a NCAA, or AIAW prior, tournament appearance. Both times the program went 7-0 it happened.

Also just as impressive as the streak, the second largest crowd in College Park Center history (behind a 2,000+ match against Texas State), and fourth largest on-campus crowd, behind two 2,300+ crowds with Texas-Austin in the late 1980's) saw the Mavs sweep ULM. The 1,635 on hand won't get to see UTA again until early October as the Mavs take to the road for the next two weeks.

With so little happening on campus from a spectator standpoint, no soccer of either gender or football, I hope the excitement doesn't peter out come October when they are back in CPC.

The theme of this week is similar to last one. MSU was picked sixth of 12 in the SLC preseason poll while ULM was last in the seven-team West Division out of the SBC. They likely would be last of the 14 schools. But, UTA had no hiccups as a whole and handled the teams they should be handling. That's not something that could be said every match in year's past.

This week, the Mavericks head to Springfield, Missouri to play in Missouri State's Dr. Mary Jo Wynn Invitational. UTA starts with the hosts on Thursday, the second Missouri Valley school on the schedule, Saint Louis of the Atlantic 10 on Friday and Weber State of the Big Sky on Saturday. Service for Thursday's match is 6 pm.