EL PASO, TEXAS --- For the second time in five years, the UT Arlington volleyball team (20-10) will compete in the National Invitational Volleyball Championship (NIVC) with the Mavs facing Florida Atlantic (20-12) at 6 p.m. CT on Friday inside UTEP's Memorial Gym in a round of 32 matchup.

With a victory, UTA would advance to face either UTEP or North Texas on Saturday at 3 p.m. for a berth in the quarterfinals. The matchup against FAU represents the first-ever meeting with the Owls.
 

UTA VOLLEYBALL INFORMATION - NIVC Round of 32
Match 31	UT Arlington (20-10) vs Florida Atlantic (20-12)
Date | Time	Friday, Dec. 1 | 6 p.m. CT
Location	Memorial Gym | El Paso, Texas
Live Stats	StatBroadcast
Streaming	ESPN+ ($)
Game Notes	UT Arlington (PDF)
Miscellaneous	Tournament Bracket (PDF)

WHAT TO KNOW
This will be UTA's third all-time appearance in the NIVC along with the 2019 and 1992 teams with the program compiling a 5-2 combined record. The 2019 team advanced to the quarterfinals after victories over UTSA and Sam Houston. In 1992, the Mavs went 3-1 in pool play but failed to advance into bracket play.
 
This year's bracket features eight host schools, with action beginning on Wednesday. The championship match is slated for Dec. 10, 11 or 12. All matches are held on campus locations. A total of six programs won or had a share of their regular season conference championship, and 17 teams in the 32-team field won at least 20 matches this season.
 
This is the 13th season of the NIVC tournament, which originally debuted from 1989-95 before returning in 2017. Modern-era champions include Ole Miss (2017), Iowa State (2018), Georgia Tech (2019), UNLV (2021) and Boston College (2022).
 
LAST TIME OUT
The Mavs suffered a heartbreaking loss in five sets to No. 5 Utah Valley on Nov. 16 in the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) quarterfinals. UTA nearly pulled off a reverse sweep but couldn't overcome 6-0 and 9-1 deficits in the final set while falling to 54-32 all-time in conference tournament play.
 
Brianna Ford led the Mavs with 20 kills, 12 digs and three blocks. It was her fifth outing with at least 20 kills and 10 digs this season, and she notched her 11th double-double over the past 13 matches. Jalie Tritt added 15 kills, nine digs and a .344 hitting percentage for the fifth 15+ kill performance of her sophomore campaign. Paige Reagor, who finished the match with 11 kills, hit .563 with nine kills and zero errors over sets three and four. Mollie Blank totaled 51 assists in her third outing with at least 50 this year, and Alli Wells notched a match-best 16 digs.
 
BLANK STREAK
Senior setter Mollie Blank collected three WAC setter of the week awards this year, thanks in large part to a tremendous stretch over the past 12 matches where she has averaged 41.4 assists, 7.5 digs and 2.1 kills. The Mansfield, Texas native recorded 51 assists in the loss to Utah Valley in the WAC quarterfinals, and she has now achieved at least 27 assists in 12 straight outings, although she had a streak of 15 consecutive matches with at least one kill snapped. She has three double-doubles over the past six matches, eclipsed 1,000 assists on the season against Utah Valley and recently became the 10th player in program history to eclipse 2,000 career assists. Her 9.24 assists per set this year easily surpasses her previous career-best of 5.84.
 

MOLLIE BLANK - PREVIOUS 12 MATCHES
Date	Opponent	Assists	Digs	Kills
10/7/23	CBU	41	5	2
10/12/23	ACU	44	4	1
10/14/23	Tarleton	33	8	2
10/19/23	Southern Utah	41	6	1
10/21/23	Utah Tech	50	7	1
10/28/23	UTRGV	49	4	1
10/30/23	SFA	39	14	3
11/2/23	Utah Valley	37	12	3
11/4/23	Seattle U	37	6	6
11/9/23	California Baptist	48	12	3
11/11/23	Grand Canyon	27	4	2
11/16/23	Utah Valley	51	8	0
AVERAGES		41.4	7.5	2.1

 
THE TERMINATOR
Senior outside hitter Brianna Ford, who was named First Team All-WAC for the second consecutive season, is averaging 17.3 kills, a .262 hitting percentage, 12.8 digs, 4.2 blocks and 1.2 aces over the past 13 matches.
 
After having her streak of consecutive double-doubles snapped at six against UTRGV on Oct. 28, Ford has now produced 11 over the team's past 13 matches. In the Nov. 9 win over CBU, Ford hit .309 with 24 kills, 12 digs and a career-high nine blocks as she nearly became the first player in the program's past 13 years to record a triple-double.
 
In the WAC quarterfinals, she recorded her 43rd career double-double, which moves her past Shawn Sweeten for the 11th-most in program history (1985-present).
 
With a strong performance in the NIVC, Ford has a chance to elevate herself into the program's top 10 in career kills as she sits 49 shy of moving into a tie for 10th. She currently has 1,248, which places her in 12th place behind Teresa Ogden (1,251, 1982-83) and Brooke Townsend (1,297, 2018-22).
 
The Amarillo, Texas native also needs 19 digs to reach 900 for her career.
 

BRIANNA FORD - LAST 13 MATCHES
Date	Opponent	Kills	Pct.	Digs	Blocks	Assists	Aces
10/5/23	GCU	15	.297	11	4	1	1
10/7/23	CBU	25	.561	11	3	-	2
10/12/23	ACU	23	.347	11	5	3	3
10/14/23	Tarleton	19	.196	21	4	3	-
10/19/23	Southern Utah	17	.200	11	6	-	2
10/21/23	Utah Tech	17	.132	13	4	1	2
10/28/23	UTRGV	18	.333	8	5	1	-
10/30/23	SFA	17	.324	19	2	1	2
11/2/23	Utah Valley	11	.049	17	6	1	1
11/4/23	Seattle U	13	.435	11	3	0	0
11/9/23	California Baptist	24	.309	12	9	1	0
11/11/23	Grand Canyon	6	-.083	10	1	0	2
11/16/23	Utah Valley	20	.271	12	3	0	0
AVERAGES		17.3	.262	12.8	4.2	0.9	1.2

 
REAGOR ON FIRE
After missing most of non-conference play due to an injury, senior middle blocker Paige Reagor has dominated over the past 11 matches, averaging 12.9 kills, a .431 hitting percentage and 4.7 blocks per outing. She has double-digit terminations in 10 of those 11, including a season-best 22 kills against Southern Utah, and she has produced 83 kills with just 11 errors while hitting .522 over the past seven matches.
 
On Oct. 14 against Tarleton, Reagor became the first UTA volleyball player to record a double-double in kills and blocks since Briana Sharatt totaled 10 kills and 11 blocks against Texas Southern on Sept. 12, 2014. In fact, Reagor produced just the 20th kill-block double-double in the program's history since 1987, and she's just the 12th player since then to record at least one.
 

PAIGE REAGOR - LAST 11 MATCHES
Date	Opponent	Kills	Pct.	Blocks
10/12/23	ACU	14	.458	5
10/14/23	Tarleton	13	.219	10
10/19/23	Southern Utah	22	.400	7
10/21/23	Utah Tech	10	.217	8
10/28/23	UTRGV	13	.684	2
10/30/23	SFA	12	.476	2
11/2/23	Utah Valley	16	.583	6
11/4/23	Seattle U	8	.727	3
11/9/23	California Baptist	11	.400	4
11/11/23	Grand Canyon	12	.391	1
11/16/23	Utah Valley	11	.500	4
AVERAGES		12.9	.431	52

 
BEST OFFENSIVE OUTING IN 30+ YEARS
As a team, UTA hit .550 against Seattle U on Nov. 4 to produce the program's best offensive performance since Nov. 20, 1992 against UTSA (.562). In fact, it was the program's fourth-best hitting percentage in any match since 1985, and they are only the second team to even eclipse .500 since 1992. Overall, it was only the 10th time since 1985 that UTA hit at least .500 in a match.
 

9/25/85	.583	vs North Texas	Arlington, Texas
9/19/92	.567 (44-6-67)	vs Louisiana	Arlington, Texas
11/20/92	.562 (54-4-89)	vs UTSA	San Antonio, Texas
11/4/23	.550 (52-8-80)	vs Seattle U	Arlington, Texas
10/31/89	.532 (39-6-62)	vs SFA	Arlington, Texas
9/30/88	.518 (50-7-83)	vs Rice	Arlington, Texas
10/23/89	.514 (46-9-72)	vs McNeese	Arlington, Texas
10/28/88	.508 (39-6-65)	vs Sam Houston	Huntsville, Texas
10/14/09	.507 (38-1-73)	vs Northwestern State	Arlington, Texas
10/15/88	.500 (44-10-68)	vs McNeese	Arlington, Texas

 
WELLS BREAKS RECORD IN DRAMATIC FASHION
Alli Wells, a graduate year libero, broke UTA's career digs record on the final rally of her home collegiate career against Seattle U on Nov. 4. It was the 2,034th career dig for the Waxahachie native, allowing her to break Alicia Shaffer's (2,033, 2008-11) record, setting off a celebration inside the CPC as the rally was capped by a kill from Briana Brown to clinch a sweep. Wells now has 103 career matches with double-digit digs and enters the NIVC with 2,076, which ranks ninth-most among all current Division I players.

MISSING IN ACTION
The Mavs went 1-1 in the final weekend of the regular season, which included a win over California Baptist, without four players due to illness, including three starters - Kortney Puckett, Alyssa Duran and Jalie Tritt. Freshman Samantha Glenn also didn't make the trip.
   
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