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UT Arlington to open 2016 with Maverick Classic
Fri., Aug. 26 - Sat., Aug. 27 | College Park Center (7,000) | Arlington, Texas

Maverick Classic Schedule
Friday, August 26
4 p.m. Arkansas-Pine Bluff vs. Sacramento State
7 p.m. Sam Houston State vs. UT Arlington

Saturday, August 27
11 a.m. Sacramento State vs. Sam Houston State
1:30 p.m. Arkansas-Pine Bluff vs. UT Arlington
4:30 p.m. Arkansas-Pine Bluff vs. Sam Houston State
7 p.m. Sacramento State vs. UT Arlington

Video Stream: UTAMavs.com
Live Stats: UTAStats.com
Match Notes: UT Arlington | Sam Houston St. | Sacramento St. | Ark.-Pine Bluff
Rosters: UT Arlington| Sam Houston St. | Sacramento St. | Ark.-Pine Bluff
Twitter: @UTAVolleyball | @BearkatsVB | @SacStateVB | @UAPBLionsRoar

The Coaches
UT Arlington: Diane Seymour (UT Arlington, 1989)
Career Record: 194-179 (13th season) Record at UTA: Same

Sam Houston State: Brenda Gray (Sam Houston State, 1982)
Career Record: 645-463 (33rd season) Record at SHSU: Same

Sacramento State: Ruben Valta (Sacramento State, 1993)
Career Record: 119-135 (9th season) Record at Sac State: Same

Arkansas-Pine Bluff: Dustin Sahlmann (Arkansas, 1996)
Career Record: 12-20 (2nd season) Record at UAPB: Same

The Basics
The UT Arlington Mavericks will kick off the 2016 season on Friday vs. Sam Houston State on Day 1 of the two-day Maverick Classic at College Park Center. The Mavs will turn quickly turn around for two more matches on Saturday, taking on Arkansas-Pine Bluff and Sacramento State to conclude the event.

The round-robin format will afford each team three matches for the opening weekend with two matches set for Friday evening before a full, four-match slate on Saturday concluding with UTA vs. Sacramento State at 7 p.m.

Season or single-game tickets for UTA Volleyball are available at www.UTATickets.com.

UTA Quick Hitters
63 WINS SINCE JOINING SBC: Since joining the Sun Belt Conference for the 2013 season, UT Arlington has had its fair share of success. The Mavericks have totaled 63 wins in that three-year span, including 34 in SBC play. The 63 victories is the most for UTA in a three-year span under head coach Diane Seymour.

SEYMOUR EYEING 200: Nobody bleeds blue and orange more than UTA head coach Diane Seymour, who enters her 13th season at the helm of the Maverick program. In that time she has built up quite a resume and this year will likely move up the all-time coaching ranks at UTA once again. She currently sits third all-time in wins with 194 and with six more victories will move past Lisa Love for second all-time at UTA, joining former coach and all-time wins leader Mary Ridgway (263) as the only two coaches to ever amass 200 wins with the Mavs. Her 373 games coached is already tops all-time among UTA head coaches.

HOST SBC TOURNEY: UTA will put the College Park Center on display late in the year when it hosts the Sun Belt Conference Championship for the first time, Nov. 18-20. It will be the first time UTA has hosted a conference championship for any sport since joining the SBC and the first time hosting a conference volleyball tournament since the 1999 season.

PRESEASON POLLS: The Sun Belt Conference released its preseason polls earlier this week with the Mavs picked to finish third in the West Division. Defending league champion Arkansas State was predicted to take the West with Texas State picked to finish second, ahead of the Mavs. League newcomer Coastal Carolina, who claimed each of the last two Big South titles, secured 10 of 12 first-place votes and was picked to take the SBC East in its first year in the SBC. The Sun Belt returns to divisional play in 2016 for the first time since the 2012 season.

REPLACING COONEY: UTA has had a consistent face in the libero jersey over the last four years, but that will change in 2016 after the departure of senior Caitlyn Cooney to graduation. Cooney totaled 1,820 digs in the off-color shirt in her time at UTA, ranking fourth all-time in program history. Now coach Diane Seymour will likely turn to a freshman, either Madelyn St. Germain or Taylor Murata to fill that role this year. Both are coming off of outstanding prep careers and stand in high regard with the coaching staff entering the 2016 season.

INGRAM & GEATHERS FROM 2015: The East Texas duo of Marisah Ingram and Zhanelle Geathers teamed up to be a dominant force at the net as freshmen in 2015, totaling 222 blocks between them a year ago. That total was the second-highest total for any freshman duo in UTA history, trailing only the 1983 tandem of Kim Draper and Katie Weismiller who had 256 between them. Ingram averaged 1.09 blocks per set in 2015 while Geathers averaged 1.02 per set.

WHEELER CLIMBING CHARTS: Cassidy Wheeler became just the ninth Maverick in program history to surpass 2,000 career assists with a 35-assist effort vs ULM on Nov. 7, 2015, She enters her senior season with 2,119 assists for her career and will be eyeing Raegan Daniel's 2,947 assists to move into the eighth all-time spot.

SIZE AT THE NET: UTA will sport plenty of size at the net this year as the 10-player portion of the roster listed as either a middle blocker or outside hitter stands at an average of 6-0 with six of those players coming in at better than 6-0 tall. That includes newcomer Allie Deese, who stands at 6-4, making her the tallest player in Maverick volleyball history.