EL PASO - In front of the programs largest crowd, the UTEP volleyball team defeated the North Texas Mean Green in four sets in the opening round of the National Invitational Volleyball Championship Friday night inside an electric Memorial Gym that resonated thunderous applause and uproar of over 2,600 fans.  

The Miners will face off against UT Arlington Saturday (Dec. 2) at 2 p.m. in the second round of the NIVC. The match will be live streamed on ESPN+. Tickets for Saturday's contest can be purchased HERE. 

UTEP improves to 22-9 while UNT caps the season at 17-16. 

"We knew it was going to be a war," head coach Ben Wallis said. "It was just two really good teams going at each other and we were able to grind it out. We were able to execute and earn the victory."

"I never stop appreciating El Paso for coming out to cheer us on," Wallis said. "We've been getting better and better and continuing to play great teams out there and our city keeps noticing. This is just a testament to all the work the players have done since we took over this program in 2019." 

Alianza Darley led the squad with 12 kills while hitting .364 and Torrance Lovesee followed with 10 kills. Kalia Kohler recorded a double-double with 17 assists and 10 digs. Kaya Weaver led the defense with eight blocks. 

UTEP's all-around performance held the statistical advantage in hitting percentage (.150 - .126), aces (11-9), and blocks (14-12) while both teams posted 42 kills.    

Set-by-Set: UTEP 3, North Texas 1 (25-22, 25-21, 17-25, 25-20) 

SET ONE | Kalia Kohler opened the match with an ace and Alyssa Sianez knocked in back-to-back aces to give UTEP the 5-3 edge. The Miners stretched the lead, 11-6, on a 5-0 run that included kill No. 1,000 for Marian Ovalle. UTEP went up 18-10 on a Danika Washington kill, but the Mean Green responded with four unanswered points to close in, 18-14. UNT tucked in two points per UTEP point for the remainder of the set, before a kill by Sakira LaCour put the Miners on the board first, 25-22. 

SET TWO | UTEP's first 10 points were derived from six UNT errors, three kills and an ace as the Miners led 10-6. The Mean Green pulled out a 6-0 run to take their first lead of the match, 12-10, forcing a UTEP timeout. Coming out of the berak, UTEP regained the lead thanks to two straight UNT errors and a pair of kills by Alianza Darley stretched the lead, 18-15. UTEP closed the set with back-to-back kills by Washington and Darley, 25-21, to take a 2-0 advantage in the match. 

SET THREE | Despite UNT taking the first two points on the third frame, UTEP jumped to a 7-3 lead from a big block by Kaya Weaver and LaCour. The Mean Green were locked in and determined to stop the Miners as they handed in a 12-1 scoring run giving up only one point to the Miners on an attack error to lead 15-8. UTEP put up three straight points in an attempt to close the gap, 16-12. UNT continued to pull ahead and finished the set off three straight kills and two blocks, 25-17, to stay in the game. 

SET FOUR | UTEP forced an early UNT timeout in the final frame as the Miners slammed down three straight kills to lead, 7-3. North Texas tied the set at 14 and 15-all, and took the lead at 19-18, but the Miners whipped out a 6-0 run on Ava Martindale's serve to reach set point, 24-19. Despite giving up one last point to UNT on an error, UTEP won the match on a successful challenge by head coach Ben Wallis to credit Ovalle with a kill, 25-20. 

 

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