EL PASO – UTEP volleyball (14-11, 8-4 Conference USA) has a split week of matches this weekend, with a trip to UTSA scheduled for Thursday at 5 p.m. MT and will host UAB on Saturday at 11 a.m. MT at Memorial Gym. Four Miners will be honored for "Senior Day" on Saturday.
Tickets start at $8 and can be purchased through the Eisenberg Family Ticket Office by calling (915) 747-UTEP, emailing tickets@utep.edu, visiting www.UTEPMiners.com/Tickets or in person at 201 Glory Road (Brumbelow Building, UTEP campus) Monday thru Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Season tickets are also still on sale. Group tickets are also available for $5 (minimum of 10 tickets).
Thursday, Nov. 10
5 p.m. at UTSA | San Antonio, Texas | CUSA.tv | Live Stats
Saturday, Nov. 12
11 a.m. vs. UAB | Memorial Gym | CUSA.tv | Live Stats | Senior Day
Hitting with Consistency
Six Miners are swinging better than .200 after 25 matches. Kaya Weaver (.316) leads the team among players with at least 100 kills.
Block Party
The Miners registered a season-high 17 blocks against North Texas on Oct. 2. UTEP posted at least 10 blocks in 11 matches this season. Alianza Darley (114) and Kaya Weaver (74) each tallied at least 70 blocks to lead the charge.
Balanced Attack
Over 25 matches, three Miners are blasting home at least 2.0 kills pet set. Torrance Lovesee (246, 2.65/set) leads the way with Serena Patterson (244, 2.39/set) and Sara Pustahija (221, 2.28/set) getting after it as well.
Miner Rankings
In Conference USA, UTEP is ranked in the top three in eight different categories:
1. Team Service Aces (201, 4th NCAA)
1. Aces per Set (1.97, 7th NCAA)
1. Team Total Blocks (248.5, 24th NCAA)
2. Blocks per Set (2.44, 53rd NCAA)
2. Team Assists (1168, 76th NCAA)
2. Team Kills (1240, 94th NCAA)
3. Opp Hitting Percentage (0.175, 45th NCAA)
UTEP has five players ranked in the top ten in five different categories in the conference:
Scouting UTSA (7-17, 2-10 C-USA)
The Roadrunners are hitting .197 as a team. Cansu Gunaydin leads the way with 257 kills (2.82 kills/set). Courtney Walters directs the offense with 594 assists (6.83 assists/set). Ava Camacho sets the tone defensively with 397 digs (4.32 digs/set).
The Series vs. UTSA
The Roadrunners are 24-23 over UTEP. The Miners swept the UTSA three weeks ago in Memorial Gym. UTEP has won four of the last five meetings, including two sweeps.
Scouting UAB (12-12, 7-5 C-USA)
The Blazers are hitting .223 as a team. Fernanda Maida leads the way with 329 kills (3.70 kills/set). Lidya Canturk directs the offense with 834 assists (10.05 assists/set). Erin Powers sets the tone defensively with 439 digs (4.72 digs/set).
The Series vs. UAB
The Blazers are 15-7 over UTEP. The two programs split a pair of matches last season in Memorial Gym. The Miners dropped the first match in five sets but bounced back the next day to sweep UAB.
Coach Wallis on the Competition
"Traveling to UTSA should be a short, quick trip. They're an interesting team right now. They've got some weapons, but they're not playing well. So that's tough to play against as a team because you don't know what you're going to get. You don't know if they're going to come out and be completely hair on fire on Senior Night or if they're going to come out and just be ready to be over with the season. So we just got to prepare for both, and we got to prepare to do our job really well and it's also hard to play a team like UTSA in a 6-2 within a span of a couple of weeks. It's hard on me because we played well and hit a big number and I've got to keep my team motivated and know that it's not going to be easy because they're good, they're good enough to beat us. So hopefully we can get in there and play well and get home with a win and then we would have a really tough UAB team at home on Saturday that's got 3-1000 kill kids on their team. They've got three really nasty, efficient attacking options. If we take care of business on Thursday and do the same thing on Saturday, then we're locked in third place and we put ourselves in a good position to go do what we want to do, which is win this conference championship."
For complete coverage of UTEP Women's Volleyball, be sure to follow the Miners on social media at @utepvb (Instagram) @UTEPVolleyball (Facebook) and @UTEPVB (Twitter) or visit the official home of UTEP Athletics at UTEPMiners.com.
