ARLINGTON, TEXAS --- After a highly successful non-conference campaign, the UT Arlington volleyball team (11-2) will take a five-match winning streak into the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) opener against UTRGV (6-7) on Thursday at 6 p.m. inside the College Park Center.
 
The evening will be Apartment and Residence Life (ARL) Night inside the CPC. With it also being national mini-golf day, there will be a chance for fans to putt for prizes.
 

UT ARLINGTON VOLLEYBALL INFORMATION
Match 14	UTRGV (6-7, 0-0 WAC) at UT Arlington (11-2, 0-0 WAC)
Date | Time	Thursday, Sept. 21 | 6 p.m.
Location	College Park Center (CPC) | Arlington, Texas
Live Stats	Stat Broadcast
Streaming	ESPN+ ($)
Tickets	UTAtickets.com
Game Notes	UT Arlington (PDF) | UTRGV (PDF)

CHASING HISTORY
With 981 career kills, senior outside hitter Brianna Ford will get a crack at becoming the 20th player in program history to record at least 1,000 in her career on Thursday. The most recent player to achieve the feat was Brooke Townsend, who recorded 1,297 kills between 2018-22.
 
In addition to Ford, graduate libero Alli Wells continues her climb toward the program's all-time digs record. With 1,829, the Waxahachie native sits in fourth place, just 59 shy of moving past Amber Pack (1,887, 1999-02) for third place. Alicia Shaffer (2,033, 2008-11) and Ashley Smith (1,921, 2003-06) reside in the top two spots.
 
Senior setter Mollie Blank has moved into 10th place on the program's career assist list, surpassing current assistant coach Kylee Kapp (1,654, 2018-21) this past weekend. Blank has 1,711 assists over 294 career sets. On Friday against McNeese, she tallied a season-best 52 distributions, becoming the first Mav to record 50 assists in a match since Jessica Stancliff against Northwestern State on Sept. 18, 2021.
 
SHE'S BACK
Senior middle blocker Paige Reagor, who opened the season by being named the Amy Svoboda Memorial Classic MVP at Air Force, returned to action on Saturday after missing the previous nine matches. The 6-6 Frisco, Texas native started the second set before finishing with three kills and two blocks.
 
SERIES HISTORY
UTRGV, behind the play of now-graduated WAC Player of the Year Sarah Cruz, defeated UTA in straight sets in Edinburg last year, but the Mavs hold a 5-1 all-time record against the Vaqueros in a series that dates back to a 1976 neutral-site match, which UTA won by a combined 30-2 advantage in points. The following four matchups came in Arlington, where the Mavs hold a 4-0 all-time record.
 
Against current WAC schools, UTA's five victories against UTRGV represent the third-most wins over a conference school behind Stephen F. Austin (31) and Abilene Christian (11). In total, the Mavs are 56-40 against current WAC schools.
 
UNDEFEATED AT HOME
The Mavs will take a 6-0 record at home into Thursday's match.
 
FUN ANNIVERSARY
On Sept. 21, 1977 --- 46 years ago --- UT Arlington swept Nebraska 15-12, 16-14, 15-10 in Arlington. It was the first-ever matchup between the two programs in a series that saw the Mavs win six of 10 all-time meetings between 1977 and 1986.
 
MR. 100
Head coach J.T. Wenger achieved his 100th career victory at UTA this past Thursday against DFW rival North Texas. After the Mavs also won their final two matches in the UTA Invitational on Friday and Saturday, Wenger takes a 102-80 career record into Thursday's conference opener, where he will look for his 10th WAC victory at UTA after a 9-5 finish last year.
 
In winning his 100th match, Wenger joined Mary Ridgway (254, 1976-81), Diane Seymour (211, 2004-16), Lisa Love (199, 1982-88), Janine Smith (180, 180-137) and Jody Conradt (111, 1973-75) as one of six coaches in program history to reach the century mark.

HOT START
This year's team became just the seventh in program history to start a season at least 6-0, joining the 2004 (6-0), 1987 (7-0), 1983 (6-0), 1981 (6-0), 1976 (6-0) and 1973 (7-0) teams.
 
DEEP IN THE HEART OF TEXAS
With the team's victories over North Texas and Texas A&M Commerce, UTA improved its all-time record against teams from the state of Texas to 537-294-6. In total, the Mavs have played 42 different schools from Texas.
 
50+ YEARS OF SEASON OPENERS
The Mavs improved to 32-18-1 all-time in season openers, including a 10-3 record since 2011, with their season opening win over Bryant. A few other notes about this year's opener include:

• This year's opener in Colorado marked the second time that UT Arlington opened a campaign in the Centennial State, joining the 1996 team's straight-set loss to Colorado in Boulder.
• In total, UTA has opened a season in 11 different states all-time, including Montana, Texas, Colorado, Washington, Kentucky, California, Delaware, Illinois, Oklahoma, Arizona and Arkansas.
• On top of that, this year's start tied for the fourth-earliest opener in program history behind the Aug. 24 start of the 2007, 2012 and 2018 teams.

SPEAK IT INTO EXISTENCE
Since 1987, there have been 24 instances of a UT Arlington volleyball player recording a triple-double, and there hasn't been one since Bianca Sauls tallied 10 kills, 10 assists and 13 digs against Southeastern Louisiana on Nov. 4, 2010.

Here's some interesting triple-double factoids:

• There has only been one triple-double in assists, digs and blocks, which was recorded by Emily Nedderman against TCU on Aug. 29, 2006.
• Shawn Sweeten, a setter who played her freshman year at Texas Tech before helping lead the Mavs to a 1989 NCAA Final 4 appearance, holds the program's career record for most triple-doubles with eight.
• Nine different players have recorded at least one triple-double.
• There has never been a triple-double comprised of kills, assists and blocks.

50 SEASONS OF UTA VOLLEYBALL
This year marks the 51st season of UT Arlington volleyball dating back to the program's inception in 1973.  Over those 50+ seasons, the Mavs have built one of the richest volleyball traditions in NCAA Division I history with a 1,150-684-8 all-time record, which puts them 16th nationally in all-time wins.
 
Meanwhile, UTA has compiled 16 national tournament appearances in either the NCAA or AIAW, including a Final Four appearance in 1989, and captured 22 combined regular season and tournament conference championships.
 
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