EL PASO – UTEP volleyball dominated the South Florida Bulls in a sweeping victory during the National Invitational Volleyball Championship semifinals Sunday afternoon, captivating a packed Memorial Gym with a second consecutive sell-out crowd of 3,271 fans. As the Miners triumphantly advance to the finals, they will face off against Wichita State on Tuesday, December 12, at 7 p.m. MT inside Memorial Gym. This marks an historic moment for UTEP as the team steps onto the championship stage for the first time in program history.  

The excitement for the win was further amplified by a remarkable individual achievement as Alianza Darley etched her name in UTEP volleyball history as the 13th player to join the illustrious 1,000 Kills Club. 

UTEP improved to 25-9 while South Florida capped the season at 22-11.  

"We knew we needed to win the race and that was a big emphasis for us in this match," head coach Ben Wallis said. "We knew our middles were going to be really important. To go 16-0-22, no errors for the middles, and have four errors overall for an entire match is insane...that's locked-in offense."

Alianza Darley paced the team with 12 kills and 15.5 points while hitting .440. Kalia Kohler (19) and Mattie Gantt (15) combined for 34 assists to help the UTEP offense to a .475 hitting clip. For the defense, Alyssa Sianez recorded 10 digs and Sakira LaCour stuffed six blocks.  

UTEP's all-around performance held the statistical advantage in kills (42-32), hitting percentage (.474 - .136), aces (9-5), and blocks (10-2).  

Set-by-Set: UTEP 3, South Florida 0 (25-14, 26-24, 25-13) 

SET ONE | UTEP dished out 15 kills and six aces in its opening set. An ace and kill by Torrance Lovesee kicked off the set and Alianza Darley put down an ace and kill as well to force an early USF timeout as UTEP led, 8-4. The Miners shredded four kills to pull ahead by seven points, 17-10. UTEP snuck in three more aces and closed the set on a pair of kills by Lovesee and Danika Washington, 25-14.  

SET TWO | The second set featured eight tied scores and four lead changes. The Miners held an 8-3 lead derived from four kills, three blocks and a USF error. Both teams went back and forth mid-set with the Bulls knotting the score four times and eventually taking the lead off a pair of kills, 13-12. A successful USF challenge kick-started a 4-0 scoring run, 17-14. UTEP also challenged and was successful in closing the gap, 17-15, but USF continued to stretch the lead as it was just two points away from taking the set, 23-18. The Miners rallied to win the set on an 8-1 scoring run to take a 2-0 advantage in the match, 26-24. 

SET THREE | The Miners ran past the Bulls in the final set as they locked in a comfortable 6-1 lead. UTEP would have had a 6-0 scoring run if it weren't for another successful challenge by USF, but that did not phase the Miners as they stormed out to a 15-6 lead. USF put up three straight points before both teams went one-for-one for eight serves, 19-13. UTEP finished off the sweep on a 6-0 scoring run with Marian Ovalle delivering the final slug, 25-13.

 

Give a gift to UTEP Women's Volleyball by donating to the Point Miners Club.                 

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.