Two years ago, The University of Texas at El Paso’s (UTEP) volleyball program put not only the 915 on notice, but the entire nation, as the 2023 squad led by Head Coach Ben Wallis, reached the final of the National Invitational Volleyball Championship (NIVC).
Despite coming up short of first place, the Miners’ tournament journey resulted in consistent sell outs, and wins against power five institutions such as Clemson.
Reaching the NIVC final increased the Sun City’s care for volleyball, causing Memorial Gym to turn into, as proudly emphasized last season by Coach Wallis, “Club Memorial.” The nickname came to life due to the Miners’ regular season success and Jason Craig’s disc jockey skills.
The Sun City’s community investment into the team played a pivotal role in UTEP’s historic 2024 season, which included posting the best regular season record in Conference-USA (C-USA) and producing the program’s first at-large bid to the NCAA volleyball tournament.
As the 2025 season looms, the Miners are eager to prove to El Paso, that they can live up to the precedent they’ve set.
“As a group and as a program, we love the thought and the expectation that every year we’re going to be good,” Coach Wallis said. “If people didn’t expect us to be good, I’d worry.”
Entering his seventh year of coaching UTEP Volleyball, Wallis has only posted one losing record on his resume, which occurred back in 2019. Since then, the Miners have never failed to reach a record above .500.
The Miners’ roster hasn’t drastically shifted from last season, as they return with 13 players that were on the 2024 NCAA National Tournament qualifying team. However, Ben Wallis isn’t shying away from displaying confidence in the team’s newest additions.
“We’re a very different group. We have five new players, one a junior college transfer Fuka Sekita. She brings a whole different kind of feel and style to our team,” Wallis said. “We have four young freshmen who have all brought a lot of skill, a lot of club experience and a lot of athleticism to our group.”
The freshman group consists of outside hitter Mackenzi Davis, middle blocker Sydney Frazier, libero Ella Meador, and setter Lexee Salas. Out of the group, Salas, Meador, and Davis are all Texas recruits, with Salas hailing from the 915. Frazier, meanwhile, is from Georgia.
“Adding them to our group has changed the complexion of our team,” Wallis said. “It’s a very different team in a lot of ways. We’re also just smarter and our younger people are now moving to veteran status.”
Notable veterans include All-American middle blocker Kaya Weaver, who enters her senior year at UTEP. She’ll rejoin outside hitters Torrance Lovesee and Emma Uskokovic, along with middle blocker Danika Washington and setter Kahlia Kohler, who all earned All-CUSA honors during the past two seasons.
Setter Alexis Massey, who last year played in 13 sets and was a crucial part in the Miners leading the nation in aces by achieving 263 as a team, enters her second season at UTEP. Just like Coach Wallis, Massey’s glad to see there’s pressure on the team.
“People are excited and they’re ready for the pressure,” Massey said. “Overall, we talked a lot about how we want to enter the season mentally. We want to be a reliable team that supports one another, takes responsibility and we want to have a lot of fun.”
The pressure may be on for the Miners, but this year’s volleyball group hopes to be as fresh as the hoodie-blazer combination that Coach Wallis sports on the sidelines during gamedays.
Sebastian Perez-Navarro is the multimedia editor for The Prospector and can be reached at [email protected] or Instagram and X @sebastianpn8, and on LinkedIn @sebastianperez-navarro.
