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UTEP volleyball fired up for trip to NCAA tournament
UTEP volleyball fired up for trip to NCAA tournament
The UTEP volleyball team has made history with its first-ever trip to the NCAA volleyball tournament. Now it will try to make a run in Pittsburgh.
Standing in the way is a first-round matchup with a 14-10 Oklahoma team that earned a No. 8 seed to 27-5 UTEP’s No. 8 seed.
The winner of Friday’s match gets either Pitt, the No. 1-ranked team in the nation and obviously a No. 1 seed, or No. 16 seed Morehouse State.
The match will be streamed on ESPN+.
What is UTEP’s pairing at the NCAA tournament
The 27-5 Miners are a No. 9 seed and play No. 8 Oklahoma Friday at 2 p.m. Mountain time.
Where is UTEP playing at the NCAA tournament?
The first- and second-round matches will be at Pitt’s Petersen Events Center in Pittsburgh.
What channel will UTEP vs Oklahoma be on?
The game will be streamed on ESPN+.
Where is a place to watch the game in El Paso?
UTEP is hosting a watch party at Deadbeach Brewery (3200 Durazno Ave.). Doors open at noon, two hours before the match.
What is the pairing for the winner?
The Miners or Sooners will play Saturday against the Pitt/Morehead State winner in Saturday’s second round. Pitt is ranked No. 1 in the nation. That game will be at 5 p.m. Mountain time/7 p.m. local (Eastern) time on ESPN+. If Pitt loses to Morehead State it would count as the biggest upset in the history of the NCAA volleyball tournament.
How did UTEP get here?
The Miners rolled to a 26-4 regular-season record where they tied Nebraska for the most three-set sweeps of any team in the nation, though they lost two home games to eventual (and perennial) Conference USA champion Western Kentucky.
In their conference tournament at their own Memorial Gym, the Miners lost a five-set semifinal to New Mexico State that put them squarely on the tournament bubble.
After that UTEP’s RPI — the computer-ranking metric the NCAA uses for tournament selection — was 38th, indicating a No. 9 seed, and that’s exactly what it got. It was listed as one of the “last four in.”
How did Oklahoma get here?
The Sooners’ 14-10 record isn’t overly impressive, but they play in perhaps the deepest volleyball league in the country, the SEC, which got nine teams to this tournament. Oklahoma finished sixth in the SEC, which included a split of two games this year with defending national champion Texas.
Oklahoma ended up ranked 32nd in the RPI, which heavily takes into account strength of schedule. Every SEC team is going to do well in strength of schedule.
Scouting UTEP
The Miners are one of the best serving teams in the nation, as they rank second out of 334 teams in service aces per set. They also rank ninth in hitting percentage.
Their top players are their setter duo of Kalia Kohler and Mattie Gantt, their outside hitters Ema Uskokovic and Torrance Lovesee, their middle blockers Kaya Weaver and Danika Washington, and defensive specialist Alyssa Sianez.
Scouting Oklahoma
The Sooners have a significant size edge on UTEP, and on most teams they play, as nine women on their 16-player roster are 6-feet or taller. Oklahoma is also a strong hitting team, as it ranks 32nd nationally in hitting percentage.
The strength-on-strength matchup will be UTEP’s offense against Oklahoma’s blocking. The Sooners rank ninth nationally and first in the SEC with 2.80 blocks per set and should have a height advantage of at least one or two inches across the front line, depending on the matchups.
The Sooner had three all-SEC players: 6-2 outside hitter Alexis Shelton, 6-7 outside hitter Alexis Shelton (she’s five inches taller than UTEP’s tallest starter, Weaver) and 6-3 middle blocker Lydia Martin.
Setter Payton Chamberlain was third in the SEC in assists per set this regular season.
What is the storyline of the match?
This is a classic first-round matchup of a team with a middling finish in the strongest of power conferences against an elite second-place team from a mid-major conference.
Oklahoma has much more history, as this is its 13th NCAA tournament appearance and it has made three Sweet 16s. However, the last time the Sooners made the NCAA tournament was in 2019, so it doesn’t have a player on the roster who has been there.
UTEP is making its first appearance, but is coming off a deep run in the second-tier NIVC, where it made the championship game last year, and it made the semifinals of that tournament in 2022.
What’s can winner expect?
No. 1 Pitt. The Panthers finished the season 29-1 and 19-1 in ACC play and earned their third-straight ACC Championship en route to the No. 1 overall seed in this year’s tournament. The lone blemish on the Panther’s resume was a 3-2 loss to SMU in October. All seven of Pitt’s starters we’re named to the All-ACC team, while head coach Dan Fisher (coach of the year) and Rachel Fairbanks (player of the year) earned major honors.
Bret Bloomquist can be reached at bbloomquist@elpasotimes.com; @Bretbloomquist on X.
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