EL PASO – No. 4 seed UTEP volleyball will face off against No. 5 seed Liberty for the third time in seven days in the quarterfinals of the Conference USA Tournament Friday, November 17, at 11 a.m. MT / 1 p.m. ET in Lynchburg, Virginia.
TICKETS
Tickets are $5-7 and can be purchased by emailing tickets@liberty.edu, visiting wwwlibertyflames.com/tickets or by calling (434) 582-7328 Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
SCHEDULE
Friday, Nov. 17
Match 28 vs. Liberty – 1 pm ET | Stream: ESPN+ | Live Stats | Quarterfinals
Saturday, Nov. 18
Semifinals – 11 am ET
Sunday, Nov. 19
Championship – 12 pm ET
HITTING WITH CONSISTENCY
UTEP is hitting .281 paced by eight Miners who are killing it at or above the mark. Danika Washington (.423) leads the team among players with at least 160 kills. The UTEP offense sits 15th in the nation in hitting percentage.
BLOCK PARTY
The Miners registered a season-high 18 blocks in the 3-1 win against San Francisco on Aug. 31. UTEP posted at least 10 blocks on 19 occasions – most recently stuffing 25 blocks against Liberty. Kaya Weaver (129) leads the charge among players with at least 75 blocks. Nationally, UTEP is 5th in team total blocks (279) and 17th in blocks per set (2.68).
BALANCED ATTACK
UTEP showed a balanced attack versus Liberty with four Miners blasting home at least 2.0 kills per set. Torrance Lovesee (23 kills, 3.29/set) led the charge with Alianza Darley, Kaya Weaver, and Sakira LaCour getting after it as well.
IN THE CUSA SPOTLIGHT
UTEP's Kaya Weaver landed on the 2023 All-Conference First Team, with Alianza Darley and Danika Washington securing spots on the Second Team and Kalia Kohler being selected for the All-Freshman Team.
- Kaya Weaver: two-time Defensive Player of the Week (Oct. 9; Nov. 13)
- Alianza Darley: three-time All-CUSA (2021, 2022, 2023)
- Danika Washington: two-time Defensive Player of the Week (Sep. 11; Oct. 23)
- Kalia Kohler: four-time Freshman of the Week (Sep. 11; Oct. 2, 23, Nov. 13); Co-Setter of the Week (Oct. 9)
OFF THE COURT
UTEP's Alianza Darley, Alyssa Sianez, and Torrance Lovesee were selected to the 11-member 2023 Conference USA Volleyball All-Academic Team.
- Alianza Darley: 4.0 GPA, MA Leadership Studies
- Alyssa Sianez: 3.5 GPA, Mathematics
- Torrance Lovesee: 3.78 GPA Biological Sciences
MINER RANKINGS
In Conference USA, UTEP is ranked in the top three in seven categories:
1. Team Total Blocks (279, 5th NCAA)
1. Blocks per Set (2.68, 17th NCAA)
2. Team Service Aces (193, 26th NCAA)
2. Aces per Set (1.86, 27th NCAA)
2. Match W-L Pct. (0.714, 48th NCAA)
3. Hitting Percentage (0.281, 15th NCAA)
3. Opp Hitting Pct. (0.192, 103rd NCAA)
UTEP has five players ranked in the top 10 in four categories in the conference:
|
Statistic |
Player |
CUSA Rank |
Value |
NCAA Rank |
|
Blocks per Set |
2 3 9 |
1.28 1.14 0.92 |
21 88 - |
|
|
Kills per Set |
10 |
2.54 |
- |
|
|
Total Blocks |
1 4 |
129 106 |
18 - |
|
|
Total Digs |
5 |
321 |
- |
THE OPPONENT
Liberty
- Liberty is entering the weekend at 15-13 and 8-8 in Conference USA.
- Madison Blane was named CUSA Defensive Player of the Year as she leads CUSA in both blocks per set (1.30) and hitting percentage (.425).
- Kamryn Bacus is ranked second in CUSA in both kills per set (3.67) and points per set (4.33) and leads Liberty with 16 double-digit kill matches.
- Delaney Dilfer is ranked second with 10.70 assists per set in CUSA matches. She became the 10th active NCAA Division I player with 4,000 career assists.
- Kate Phillips is second on the team in both double-digit kill matches (15) and double doubles (6) this year.
- Liberty is looking for its eighth-ever conference tournament championship and first since winning back-to-back Big South titles in 2011 and 2012. Last year, Liberty won the ASUN regular-season title before falling to No. 2 seed FGCU in the ASUN final.
- UTEP is 2-0 over the Lady Flames.
Give a gift to UTEP Women's Volleyball by donating to the Point Miners Club.
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