Is this UTEP's best ever volleyball team? Answers start to come this weekend
UTEP volleyball coach Ben Wallis knows the question his team is begging.
He’s not ready to answer it yet, though his 8-3 Miners will begin to this week when they travel to face Conference USA favorite, No. 25 Western Kentucky in the league opener.
How historically good is this UTEP team? Can it be great? Can it make the NCAA tournament? Can it be the best Miners team ever?
More: C-USA volleyball standings
“Ask me that question in December and I'll be able to answer that better,” Wallis said. “I think this could be one of the best teams we've ever had. I think it could be one of the best teams in the history of UTEP.
“But none of that matters on Sept. 20. It matters on Nov. 19 when we're playing for a conference championship or not. I think we're a very good volleyball team, I don't know if we're a great team, I don't know if we're an elite team — yet.
“That has yet to be seen and when you have tests like Friday and Saturday, the 25th-ranked team in the country, that gives you a good indication of where you fit, where you lie.”
More: C-USA volleyball schedule
An exceptionally deep, veteran team has created these questions after a strong non-conference campaign that included a victory against Washington and competitive losses to Clemson, North Carolina State and Arizona State.
Picked second to Western Kentucky in C-USA coming in, that form looks to be holding. UTEP leads the league in most defensive statistics and has three of the top seven blockers (Kaya Weaver is second, Danika Washington third and Alianza Darley seventh).
UTEP has been pointing this direction since Wallis took over in 2019. It has been on a steady ascent and this year looks to be a new peak. The expectations have changed for a team that has gone from hunter to hunted.
“When you have people chasing you, it's a different feeling than when you're the person doing the chasing,” Wallis said. “You have more of a target on your back.
“The NCAA came out this week with a top-five matchups of the weekend for all college volleyball and we're No. 5. UTEP volleyball is in national news for college volleyball when it comes to our matchup with Western Kentucky.
“That's awesome, that's a really cool thing, that's something these guys have earned, but it also puts more of a target on your back. The expectation is higher, that's different, but we welcome it.”
His team certainly does.
“It's exciting we have that little chip on our shoulder now that everybody wants to beat us,” said senior libero Alyssa Sianez, an El Paso High grad. “It's crazy because, my freshman year we were trying to beat those top teams. Now that we are one of those top teams it's exciting. It's something to be proud of for sure.”
Said the sophomore Weaver: “It's nice to know we have a target on our back. It gives us pressure we need.”
There’s also some pressure in the chase for history. Since the program joined the WAC in 1991, its best seasons were a 21-10 mark in 2005 (it was 10-6 in conference that year) and 24-8 in the NVIC semifinalist season of 2021.
What gives this team a chance at greatness, according to the players, is its chemistry.
“One of the biggest things, our culture has gotten a lot better,” said third-year sophomore Torrance Lovesee. “We have built that bond together that makes it easier to work through the issues, unlike last year where we just used our athletic ability.
“This year we work together emotionally and physically. … It's not one person like other teams have, we have 19 people who make this team what it is.”
Wallis said a key is the team getting older. It has gone from young and promising to a veteran group realizing that potential.
“We've got a more mature team, we have a little more experience,” he said. “We're not a young group of inexperienced, talented people any more.
“We've got a veteran group out there that's understanding how to win better, understanding how to close out games better. That always helps when you don't have a bunch of young bucks out there messing stuff up.”
Wallis said the key is reigning all that talent in and getting it going in the right direction.
“We've got to stop being so reckless in how we play,” he said. “We're a very high kill, but also high error team. What we have to be able to do is diminish those errors but not lose our aggression.
“That's the balancing act, that's the teeter-totter. You don't want to back them off so much from being aggressive, being nasty, hitting the ball hard or serving it tough because then we lose our identity.
“But we have to find a balance of being too reckless and giving points away. If we can keep our recklessness down to a minimum, when it comes to functioning at a higher level and executing better, we can be elite.”
That’s what is in front of the Miners as they travel to the No.25 team in the nation for two games this weekend.
Bret Bloomquist can be reached at 915-546-6359; bbloomquist@elpasotimes.com; @Bretbloomquist on Twitter.
UTEP at No. 25 Western Kentucky
What, when, where: Two Conference USA volleyball matches, 5 p.m. Mountain time Friday and 11 a.m. Mountain time Saturday, Bowing Green,Ky.
Follow: Live stats on UTEPMiners.com; on X (formerly Twitter) @UTEPVB
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: How good is UTEP's volleyball team with Western Kentucky up next?
