SPORTING MAVS

Volleyball Victors

Volleyball wraps season with win over Southern Utah

The 2022 regular season for UTA volleyball, its first in the Western Athletic Conference (WAC), concluded in intense fashion, with the Mavericks tying Southern Utah in four sets, leading to a tie-breaking fifth set. Ultimately, the Mavericks emerged victorious, winning 15-8 in the last set.

“There were a lot of potential distractions, but we kept our focus when we needed to,” says head coach JT Wenger. “It was an interesting match, with a lot of back and forth, but we found the way to put it away.”

Two Mavericks earned WAC postseason honors as voted on by the league’s 13 head coaches. Brianna Ford, who marked career bests in kills (3.42), hitting percentage (.244), digs (2.70), assists (.26), blocks (.84), and points (4.16) per set, was named to the WAC First Team. Sophie Skinner, who recorded 40-plus assists five different times during the year, was named to the WAC All-Freshman Team. She led the WAC in assists per set (6.77).

In WAC tournament play, UTA was the No. 5 seed against two-time defending WAC tournament champions Utah Valley. While the Mavs fell to Utah Valley in four sets, the team outperformed its competition in defense with a 19-15 block edge. Alli Wells contributed 12 digs in the match, reaching double figures for the 11th time in 12 games and securing her place as sixth in program history with 1,632 digs in her career.