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ARLINGTON, Texas - The I-35 rivalry with Texas State heats up once again as UTA heads to San Marcos on Saturday for a battle with the Bobcats.

The Lady Mavericks (9-3, 2-0 SBC) are hoping to achieve something they haven't done since the 2007-08 season, opening 3-0 in conference play. UTA is riding the confidence of knocking off Texas State (6-7, 1-1) in both of the matchups last season, including a 80-48 in the last visit to Strahan Coliseum.

"It will be a great game," UTA coach Krista Gerlich said. "It will be a great in-state rivalry game and I do know that they will come after us and we need to be ready to play. The fact that we are playing at their place first means that we really need to come in with a chip on our shoulder and not rest on our laurels that we took two from them last year. We have seven new players and those kids don't know any better. So they have to be ready to fight, be focused and be ready for a 40-minute battle."

All Lady Mavericks games are broadcast on Mavs All-Access with Amanda Kent calling the action. The subscription based service starts at $9.99 per month and gives fans access to all Lady Mavs games. The game is available also on Time Warner/Spectrum Sports Ch. 323.

The Lady Mavs had two big games against Texas State last season with huge numbers coming from junior center Rebekah VanDijk. The Nazareth, Texas native posted 26-point and 33-point efforts, two of the three highest scoring outputs of her career.

VanDijk has been the scoring leader this season at 16.6 points per game, but the focus hasn't always been on the junior. UTA has two others featured in double-digit scoring, Cierra Johnson and Christina Devers, and five of the seven top scorers are newcomers.

"It is nice to have options and nice that you don't have to put that much pressure on her night in and night out," Gerlich said. "I do think that Rebekah is our best option, and I've always been a coach that we go to our first option, and when we have it we will continue to go to it, but when we have to go to option two they have to step up. Luckily now we have option three, four and five and that helped us be a more balanced and productive team.

One of those options has been the emergence of freshman guard Aysia Evans. The Tulsa, Okla. product has found her way into the starting rotation, starting six games and producing 6.9 points this season.

Evans attributed her success, and finding a spot in the rotation, on the competition she has had with the other Lady Mavs.

"It pushes everybody everyday to get better," Evans said. "We all know that no one has a guaranteed spot so we are all competing and working hard everyday. It makes the practices more fun and more competitive."

UTA opened the Sun Belt portion of its schedule with a 2-0 record, squeaking out wins against Appalachian State and conference newcomers Coastal Carolina. Despite the two wins achieved, Gerlich said the team had a lot to work on this week.

"The best thing is that it makes us go back to work," Gerlich said. "We can't sit back and say 'oh look at us, we played so well'. Our kids realize they narrowly escaped a loss. They have to have the right mindset so we came back at went to work, and we really had a lot to work on. It is a good thing to get a little bit of a scare and a little bit of a wake up call so they know that every single game in the Sun Belt is going to be a dog fight."

The 2017 Sun Belt Conference Men's and Women's Basketball Championships are scheduled for a week of March Madness in the Big Easy. New Orleans will once again be home to the two championships that will take place at Lakefront Arena from March 7-12 and ticket books can now be purchased from your school's ticket office. For more information, visit the Sun Belt Conference's championship central websites - Men's Championship - Women's Championship - and be sure to follow the #FunBelt on social media - @SunBelt.