UTEP rolls past USF, will host NIVC championship match Tuesday

The UTEP volleyball team and its raucous fan base has turned Memorial Gym into a fortress.

In a season full of memories on their impregnable floor, the Miners are going to get one more chance to defend it.

Sparked by a big comeback in the second set, UTEP swept South Florida 25-14, 26-24, 25-13 in the NIVC semifinals to earn a championship match Tuesday against Wichita State.

More: NIVC bracket

Quoting the team

"The environment is insane," said middle blocker Danika Washington, who had eight kills and five blocks. "It gets better and better every home game. Selling out is crazy, to hear the noise pop whenever we score a point, every point, it's amazing."

The sellout crowd of 3,271 saw one of UTEP's cleanest matches ever. Program records for errors aren't kept, but coach Ben Wallis said the four errors the Miners committed had to a be a record for fewest in a match.

The middle blockers Washington and Kaya Weaver combined for 16 kills on 22 attempts with no errors.

South Florida is "physical on the pins, they can outscore you," Wallis said. "They are like the Golden State Warriors of volleyball, they try to outscore you. They aren't a stopping team. They serve tough and score.

"We had to win the race, that was a big emphasis for us. For our middles to go 16-0-22, no errors, for the middles, and be able to hit like that and have four errors overall — that's insanity."

Weaver said she and her teammates were simply playing like they are capable of.

"We were executing on every level," she said. "We fell apart a little bit in the second set but we pushed back and executed to our level. We played UTEP volleyball the rest of the game. We had our moments and the crowd was helping us.

"We were waiting for this moment. We can't wait to play here in El Paso."

How it went

The second set was the decisive moment. South Florida was ahead 23-18 when Torrance Lovesee got hot on the serve and drew the Miners back to 23-22. The Bulls broke serve to get a set point, but UTEP defended it. Then Alyssa Sianez served out the set, closing with an ace to make it 26-24 and draw the loudest roar in an afternoon full of them.

"We're a really good serving team," Wallis said. "We never feel like we're out of a match the way we serve and block it. We're a serving and blocking juggernaut. We're throwing fastballs, we're also dropping in sliders, changeups and screwballs.

"To do that you have to have big guts and the attention and mindset, even when you are way down, and keep throwing fastballs."

Saluting the crowd

As that started happening, the crowd got involved and Wallis said that swung the match

"When the crowd gets behind you, it also gets behind the opposite for the visiting team," he said. "The visiting team starts to get tense. That's an environment that is only in a couple of places in America.

"The crowd willed us to a victory in that second set. It was a big momentum shift in the match. It's the time when they recognized, 'We're not good enough. We can't play with these guys.'"

In the end South Florida couldn't and a magical season gets one more act.

Up next

UTEP faces Wichita State in the championship game Tuesday night at 7 p.m.

Bret Bloomquist can be reached at bbloomquist@elpasotimes.com; @Bretbloomquist on Twitter.

This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: UTEP rolls past USF, will host NIVC championship match Tuesday