Gut Punch

It was another rough week this week for the UT Arlington volleyball squad, made even worse against in-state conference foes that once again resulted in a two-game losing week. The losses pretty much seal UTA's fate in the fifth position based on who is left on the schedule.

UTA hosted Tarleton State on Thursday and lost in five sets. Looking over the rosters, it made sense why Tarleton has had measurable success compared to last year, and their Division I stint as a whole. First-year head coach Jazmyne Johnson revamped the roster, though I was severely disappointed in her and the whole Texan team post-match, more on that in a moment.

The Texans have three returning players who have never enrolled anywhere else, one junior and two seniors. They have two freshmen on the roster. There are two transfers from the Junior College ranks who enrolled at TSU last year. There are ten, yes ten, players who were on a different campus last year within the NCAA, nine Division I players and one Division II. Even in the portal era, that is a high turnover for a volleyball roster.

The match was a back-and-forth affair where TSU won the odd sets and the Mavs grabbed the even sets. The Mavs scored only 17 in the first set and held the Texans to 19 in the second. TSU needed more than 25 in the third set, beating UTA 27-25. The Mavericks evened it up in the fourth 25-21 and Tarleton used a 9-3 run to win 9-15. Junior outside hitter LaNeah Lara had 25 kills on 63 chances. With just four errors, she hit a very goof .333 for the match. Despite this being the only match the Texans played last week, Lara earned the Player of the Week for the Western Athletic Conference for that performance.

UTA matched Tarleton's kill numbers with 57 overall. They also beat the Texans in aces 7-6. Digs are slowly becoming less of a concern for me as the season progresses. UTA had one more than TSU, 85-84.

What is a concern is net play. UTA's opponent had ten blocks to UTA's six. Tarleton controlled the net. UTA's offense was certainly impacted by the Texan defensive front while Tarleton was not. Lara, who averaged five kills a set, averages 2.75 for the year. She had no concern for UTA's front. UTA has no players in the top ten for blocks in the WAC and ranks last out of seven teams. Their 1.81 per set trails the conference leader in Utah Valley by 1.74. UTA trails Tarleton by .55 per set.

That's the difference. UTA has a diminished ability to alter the offense while I see UTA all the time commit errors or watch the opponent get a point on their attack. That will have to be improved upon in the offseason. 

What really irked me was the Texas display on UTA's home floor immediately at the conclusion of the match. While UTA played their fight song and Alma Mater, the Texans were hooting and hollering on their end of the floor. They took pictures facing UTA so they could stare the UTA players down and rub it in on their home floor. I believe it was Graduate Student Alondra Hernandez, a transfer outside hitter, who took exception and started towards the net and had to be held or pulled back. 

Sportsmanship is a big thing to me. This past Saturday, my sixth graders football won their second game in seven tries. They started celebrating as we formed the handshake line. I told them remember how it has felt, celebrate after the line and conduct themselves calmly. They did and won with class. 

I'm not telling Tarleton to not celebrate winning inside College Park Center. But what Coach Johnson should have done was tell them they could wait three minutes until the songs were over. Instead, she joined in on it and was doing the same stuff. Act like you've been there is a legitimate expression and for good reason. I'm completely disgusted by their behavior as a whole. They beat UTA in five sets twice and if they meet in the conference tournament, there will be a long memory.

Two days later, the Mavs traveled to Abilene for the return match against in-state rival. The Wildcats beat UTA 3-1 in Arlington and this was supposed to be another match in the revenge tour. Unfortunately for UTA, it was another five set loss. UTA is now 4-7 in five set matches. What's even more concerning, UTA won the first four and have lost the last seven that have gone the full distance. I commented early on that I was encouraged that UTA took the fifth set when they shouldn't have gone that far to begun with. Now, I'm concerned when it gets that far.

UTA lost the first two sets, scoring 13 and 17 respectively. I'm not sure why they were only able to get 13 against a team that is 11-14 overall. I could stream the match for some reason. 17 isn't much better, but still looks better on paper. 

UTA finally found momentum in the third, but had to slug it out for a 27-25 set win. The fourth was a more comfortable 25-20 win. UTA score 13 in the fifth set loss to give the Wildcats the match. The run that the Mavs need against Tarleton in the fifth came a little too late for UTA. With the Mavs trailing 12-7, they went on a 4-0 run but immediately let ACU expand the lead to 14-11. The Mavs staved off match point twice, but could not do it a third time. 

UTA had three more kills, 62-59, 11 more assists, 62-51, were even at aces at seven each and UTA tallied more digs, 72-61. All of that tends to lead to wins. But if you looked at the combined scores, the Mavs trailed by 15. The culprit of course was the net-minding. ACU had 13 blocks to UTA's eight. That of course leads to more hitting errors, 35 for UTA to 21 for the Wildcats. It can't be underestimated how a player like Paige Reagor contributes to the team outcome by doing more than what shows up in the stat sheet.

The losses hurt UTA's chances of moving into the top three. Instead of a 5-4 record with wins over the number three and four teams, UTA is 3-6 overall, ahead of 2-7 California Baptist and 1-8 Southern Utah.

The way the bracket shapes out, it does not look good for the Mavs. If the season ended today, the Mavs would play ACU, who is hosting the conference tournament. UTA has no chance to move to third. If the Mavs win out and Tarleton losses out, they will be tied and Tarleton has the tiebreaker.

UTA will have a hard chance to get to fourth. The Mavs have the top teams remaining, number one Utah Valley, who is the blocking machine at CPC and Utah Tech on their home floor. They have 1-8 Southern Utah on their floor too and that's not guaranteed either.

ACU has Tarleton, UVU and CBU remaining. There are only two ways UTA passes them in the standings. The Wildcats would have to lose out while the Mavericks take two of three of ACU can win a match and UTA wins out. That seems a tall order given both teams schedules.

CBU has SUU, ACU and UT remaining. I'm not sure the official tiebreaker, but I believe UTA does have it, meaning UTA is likely fifth for the conference tourney.

It is the last one-match week for UTA as senior day as the UVU Wolverines come to CPC on Saturday. The Wolverines are in first at 8-1 in WAC play. First serve is scheduled for 1 PM.