There was a feat that was accomplished at seemingly every corner of UTEP volleyball's season.
 
There were records set for the first time in… a decade… two decades… thirty years… or since head coach Ben Wallis was six years old and didn't even have any inkling of what the sport of volleyball was about.
 
That last part might be hard to believe for some. But regardless, the 2020-21 Miner volleyball team was perhaps the best of its kind since the mid-to-late 1980s that took the floor in Memorial Gym.
 
Here's why: UTEP secured its highest seeding in a conference tournament since 1984 and advanced to the semifinals of a conference tournament for the first time since 2008.
 
In the regular season, UTEP finished with a winning record for the first time since 2012 and reached its highest conference winning percentage (.667) since the 1985 season. The Miners also went on a four-match, 12-set winning streak for the first time in conference play since the 1996 season.
 
"I told (my team) that we would look back on this team maybe 10 or 15 years from now as the real reason why the trajectory of this program got moving in the right direction," Wallis said. "All the hard work that they put in and all of the things that they persevered through and overcame. They're a big part of the growing success of this program in that they decided they want to be a part of changing the history of this program and that's the real fun part about this team."
 
Wallis' Miners accomplished the two primary goals they set at the beginning of the season to finish in the top-four of the Conference USA and win a postseason match. When sorting through the obstacles the team faced in dealing with COVID-19 protocols and a postponed start to the season, the singular moment that shifted the attitude of the team and direction of the Miners' season was UTEP's second match versus North Texas on March 1.
 
The Miners – who were picked to finish fourth in the West Division in the C-USA Preseason Poll – knew they had to take down the Mean Green – a perennial top-four team in the conference – in the cramped lunch box–style gym that is the North Texas Assembly Center. UTEP had not one a match in Denton, Texas, since 1994 when Norm Brandl was head coach.
 
The Miners gutted out a five-set victory after going down, 2-1, and playing without its vocal leader junior libero Hula Crisostomo in the match.
 
"What I learned about my team today was that they are tough enough," Wallis said after the victory.
 
Before that series, UTEP defeated its I-10 rival UTSA – who was picked to finish third in the West Division – for the first time in 10 years and went on to sweep the Roadrunners.

It feels important to note that this was all accomplished under head coach Ben Wallis and assistant coaches Andrea Beaty and Nikola Petrovic's second years with the program.
 
STATISTICS COMPARISON
 
UTEP finished 2020-21 in the top four in C-USA in service aces (1st), aces per set (1st), hitting percentage (4th), kills (3rd), assists per set (3rd) and opponent hitting percentage (3rd). The Miners did not rank in the top four in C-USA any statistical category last season.
 
UTEP finished 20^th in the country in aces per set (1.81) and 28^th in total team aces (114). The Miners were also in the top-55 in the NCAA in assists per set (48^th, 12.52), hitting percentage (51^st, .239) and kills per set (44^th, 13.59).
 
The year before Wallis took over the program in 2018, the Miners ranked 10^th or worse across the board in nearly every statistical category.
 
"Statistically, I think we shrunk the gap by a lot this year if you look at some of our offensive numbers," Wallis said.
 
WALLIS' WORD TO UTEP STAFF, FACULTY AND HIS ATHLETES
 
I wanted to just voice my program, team and staff's thankfulness.
 
We're so appreciative of all of our fans this year that got to come back out to Memorial Gym. It
 
Most importantly, in order for us to have a successful season and us have a season (at all), Jim Senter and Dr. Heather Wilson were instrumental in that, getting us an opportunity to play in the fall which was huge. The amount of work UTEP has put in testing wise, making all of these protocol changes (and) dealing with our doctors who were marvelous.
 
They are the next group of people that I am so thankful for. They worked so hard this year. The amount of stress they were under daily, weekly and hourly sometimes to meet deadlines and protocols were Dawn Hearn and Mindy Hamilton. Our athletic training staff was so great. They got us through so many obstacles, giving us opportunities to play these matches. My players are so thankful for that and so is my staff.
 
Traimain Johnson, our strength coach, got us through these wildly changing uncertainties on a weekly basis to try to keep our players healthy and strong.
 
Heather Smith and Denise Holguin over in the academic center – they had to deal with a lot of complexities to when it came to schedules and online classes versus in-person classes and being on the road, being quarantined and how you're going to talk with the professors.
 
And Vinny Lavalsiti, our sports information director (SID), marketing our program so people can see the changes and great things that are happening… and getting us into a spotlight on social media and through the local media.
 
The last thing: I'm thankful for my staff and my players. Nick Petrovic and Andrea Beaty worked really hard this year. This was the longest season ever from July 2020 until April 2021. And we'll never have another one like it, I hope. They worked hard this year and sacrificed a lot of time on their own individually in order to get these players to compete at a high level.
 
I told my players that I'm so thankful they went through the hardest year they'll probably ever have to go through in their lives just to play volleyball. Most people don't understand how much they gave up… just to play volleyball for UTEP this year and I'm really thankful for them sacrificing that because we ended up having a year that we achieved a lot of goals and raised the level of this program to at least respectable. Now, it's our job to take it to the next level in 2021.
 
#KeepMakingHistory