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El Paso was starved for this UTEP volleyball team and it's magical run: Analysis
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- El Paso was starved for this UTEP volleyball team and it's magical run: Analysis
Five years ago, Ben Wallis shared his vision for UTEP volleyball in a job interview with athletic director Jim Senter.
El Paso is a volleyball town, he explained.
"This city loves volleyball and we just needed to give them a reason to come," Wallis said.
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He and his team, and the city El Paso, delivered in a magical run through the NIVC , ending in Wednesday's loss in the championship game to Wichita State, which goes to something more fundamental.
El Paso is a UTEP town.
The Sun City was starved for something to get behind, and found it with a remarkable volleyball team full of life, energy and excitement. They built something special at Memorial Gym, something that will live beyond this fairy tale December.
Eventually their season ended the way most do, with a loss to a better team, and UTEP wasn't able to be one of two teams nationally to end its season with a tournament win. That doesn't diminish what the Miners and their fans created in Memorial Gym.
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One highlight came in the quarterfinal against Clemson when new football coach Scotty Walden was introduced, then did all he could to match the energy from the sold-out crowd.
Presumably nobody told him that scene in Memorial Gym is not normal across UTEP as a whole, but it can be. El Paso is dying to throw itself behind the UTEP banner and here was an opportunity.
That showed in 2014 and '16 when the women's basketball team charged through the WNIT, it showed last year when the UTEP football team sold out a Sun Bowl game in its first outing since making a bowl in 2021.
If UTEP wins, El Paso will come and they will be loud.
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This volleyball program is a model for what UTEP can be. The Miners went 5-21 in 2018 before Wallis arrived, though actually there was some talent waiting to be awakened.
Wallis brought charisma and creativity. His first recruit was a high school basketball player, Alianza Darley , who had no other Division I volleyball scholarship offers. That proved to be everyone else's mistake, as she was a star on this team in her fifth year.
Alyssa Sianez had no scholarship offers at all, the El Paso High grad walked on and Wallis set about developing her into a libero who could play for anyone.
Juarez's Marian Ovalle wasn't Division I eligible out of high school, so Wallis steered her to New Mexico Military Institute and then grabbed her when she became eligible.
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Wallis also started a European pipeline, supplementing it with a lot of players from Texas. He also was able to bring in players such as Torrance Lovesee from small-town Kansas, who fell in love with El Paso and Wallis' vision for the program on her visit.
UTEP volleyball became something 18-year-old women wanted to be a part of.
UTEP Miners volleyball are 25-9 overall and defeated South Florida to reach the title match on Dec. 12 against Wichita State at Memorial Gym.
When a team gets on a run like the Miners have, their players are going to get the exposure that will lead to power-conference opportunities. If they do leave, they probably won't get the chance to play in front of 3,200 people.
Highlights of the sold-out tournament run are going to be sent out to all UTEP recruits and that's going to get the Miners in some doors they couldn't get in five years ago.
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There's a snowball effect, winning in front of big crowds begets winning bigger in front of bigger crowds, and right now UTEP looks positioned to be an elite mid-major volleyball program for the foreseeable future.
They can count on bringing the people of El Paso with them on this journey. This town needed this run, they needed this volleyball team, they need UTEP to give them something to rally around.
They found it in a special volleyball team who created memories for a lifetime.
Bret Bloomquist can be reached at bbloomquist@elpasotimes.com; @Bretbloomquist on Twitter.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: El Paso was starved for 2023 UTEP volleyball team: Analysis
