UT Arlington Mavericks women's volleyball

The Texas–Arlington Mavericks volleyball team, historically one of the most nationally prominent teams on campus, is an NCAA Division I college volleyball team rejoined the Western Athletic Conference in July 2022. Home games are played at College Park Center, located on University of Texas at Arlington's campus in Arlington. The team has appeared in eight AIAW National Tournaments, eight NCAA Tournaments and three National Invitational Volleyball Championship Tournament, collecting 12 regular seasons titles and ten conference tournament titles along the way. The Mavericks are currently in their longest national post-season drought in program history, with the last appearance coming in the 2002 season.

Texas–Arlington Mavericks
University	University of Texas at Arlington
Head coach	J.T. Wenger
Conference	WAC
Location	Arlington, Texas
Home arena	College Park Center (capacity: 7,000)
Nickname	Mavericks
Colors	Royal blue, white, and orange[1]
AIAW/NCAA Tournament semifinal
1989
AIAW/NCAA Tournament appearance
1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 2001, 2002
Conference tournament champion
1982, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1992, 2001, 2002, 2024
Conference regular season champion
1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1992, 1998, 2002

Team history

See also: UT Arlington Mavericks

UT Arlington in action against Louisiana–Monroe

The Mavericks began competition in the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women, as the NCAA didn't sponsor women's sports until the early 1980s. UTA's first coach was Jody Conradt who was also the head coach for the basketball and softball teams. Right away, the Mavericks were competitors, appearing in the AIAW National Tournament eight out of a possible nine times, finishing as high as sixth nationally in 1981. They placed in the national tournament every year but one.

When the NCAA began competition, the Mavericks moved over to the Southland Conference, where UTA was a founding member in 1963. The Mavericks immediately became the most dominant team in the conference winning the first nine regular season titles. UTA won the first conference tournament in 1982, but the NCAA structure didn't allow UTA to play in a postseason match. Second-seeded Lamar would win the conference tournament in 1983 and 1984 and again the Mavericks missed playing in the postseason. The Mavericks finally won the SLC tournament in 1985 under Head Coach Lisa Love and would also claim the next five after that. The Mavericks would establish themselves as national contenders as they made four Sweet Sixteen appearances, two Elite Eight's and a Final Four in 1989.

The Mavericks slipped in stature during the '90's after Coach Love took over the program at USC. They were no longer the perennial Southland Conference favorite, though they did win three regular season championships in the '90's and two tournament crowns.

Despite having long been removed from the Southland, the volleyball team still is first in regular season championships and three more tournament titles than second place Texas State.

UT Arlington would move from the Southland to the Western Athletic Conference in 2012, but would spend only one season in the WAC, moving from there to the Sun Belt Conference. After a later round of conference realignment in the early 2020s led to a major expansion of the Sun Belt's football side, UTA announced in January 2022 that it would return to the WAC that July.^[2]

In October 2015 against in-state Sun Belt rival Texas State, UTA's volleyball home attendance record at College Park Center was broken with 2,018 fans attending the match.^[3]

Facilities

Until 2012, the Mavericks played at Texas Hall, which is a 3,300-seat theater on the campus. The teams played on the stage, and fans could watch the game from either the theater seats or the bleacher section.

A new arena called the College Park Center with a seating capacity of 7,000 opened for the 2012 season.^[4][5] The facility is located on the eastern side of the campus along with new housing, parking, and retail developments.

Coaches

The Mavericks have had 7 coaches, listed below, in their 40+ year history. J.T. Wenger, a former volleyball player at UCLA and former assistant coach at UCLA, Michigan State, and Colorado, is the current head coach. Wenger is also the first male coach in program history.

• Jody Conradt – 1973–1975 (3 seasons)
• Mary Ridgway – 1976–1981 (6 seasons)
• Lisa Love – 1982–1988 (7 seasons)
• Cathy George – 1989–1993 (5 season)
• Janine Smith – 1994–2003 (10 seasons)
• Diane Seymour – 2004–2016 (13 seasons)
• J.T. Wenger – 2017–present

Season-by-season results

Statistics overview

Season	Coach	Overall	Conference	Standing	Postseason
Jody Conradt (AIAW) (1973–1975)
1973	Conradt	27–9–3			T-9th AIAW National Tournament
1974	Conradt	44–6–3			7th AIAW National Tournament
1975	Conradt	34–14–2			AIAW National Tournament
Jody Conradt:		105–29–8 (.768)
Mary Ridgeway (Independent) (1976–1981)
1976	Ridgway	45–15–1			9th AIAW National Tournament
1977	Ridgway	44–12			5th AIAW Regional Tournament
1978	Ridgway	50–10			9th AIAW National Tournament
1979	Ridgway	41–22			8th AIAW National Tournament
1980	Ridgway	46–15			11th AIAW National Tournament
1981	Ridgway	37–20			6th AIAW National Tournament
Mary Ridgway:		263–94–1 (.736)
Lisa Love (Southland Conference) (1982–1988)
1982	Love	29–17	5–0	1st
1983	Love	30–20	3–0	T-1st
1984	Love	21–16	6–0	1st
1985	Love	28–4	6–0	1st	NCAA Tournament
1986	Love	29–10	6–0	1st	NCAA Tournament Sweet Sixteen
1987	Love	32–7	7–0	1st	NCAA Tournament Sweet Sixteen
1988	Love	30–4	7–0	1st	NCAA Tournament Elite Eight
Lisa Love:		199–78 (.718)	40–0 (1.000)
Cathy George (Southland Conference) (1989–1993)
1989	George	31–4	7–0	1st	NCAA Tournament Final Four
1990	George	18–19	7–0	1st	NCAA Tournament
1991	George	13–18	8–1	2nd
1992	George	20–14	9–0	1st	3rd National Invitational Volleyball Championship Tournament
1993	George	11–19	6–3	T-4th
Cathy George:		93–74 (.557)	37–4 (.902)
Janine Smith (Southland Conference) (1994–2003)
1994	Smith	11–21	6–7	T-5th
1995	Smith	15–20	9–9	5th
1996	Smith	13–18	11–5	T-2nd
1997	Smith	19–13	13–5	3rd
1998	Smith	24–7	19–1	1st
1999	Smith	16–15	12–8	T-4th
2000	Smith	18–11	16–4	3rd
2001	Smith	22–12	13–7	T-4th	NCAA Tournament
2002	Smith	26–7	18–2	1st	NCAA Tournament
2003	Smith	16–13	14–6	3rd
Janine Smith:		180–137 (.568)	131–54 (.708)
Diane Seymour (Southland Conference) (2004–2011)
2004	Seymour	24–7	15–5	3rd
2005	Seymour	6–21	4–14	9th
2006	Seymour	25–10	12–4	T-2nd
2007	Seymour	19–11	12–4	3rd
2008	Seymour	7–23	3–13	11th
2009	Seymour	12–17	8–8	6th
2010	Seymour	17–15	10–6	4th
2011	Seymour	12–19	8–8	6th
Diane Seymour:		122–123 (.498)	72–62 (.537)
Diane Seymour (Western Athletic Conference) (2012–2013)
2012	Seymour	9–22	5–13	8th
Diane Seymour:		9–22 (.290)	5–13 (.278)
Diane Seymour (Sun Belt Conference) (2013–2016)
2013	Seymour	19–15	10–8	4th
2014	Seymour	25–9	14–6	4th
2015	Seymour	19–10	10–6	4th
2016	Seymour	17–16	10–6	4th
Diane Seymour:		80–50 (.615)	44–26 (.629)
Diane Seymour - career:		211–195 (.520)	131–54 (.545)
J.T. Wenger (Sun Belt Conference) (2017–2021)
2017	Wenger	13–17 (.433)	7–9 (.438)	7th
2018	Wenger	16–12 (.571)	9–7 (.563)	5th
2019	Wenger	20–14 (.588)	8–8 (.500)	3rd, West
2020	Wenger	13–10 (.565)	10–6 (.625)	3rd, West
2021	Wenger	12–15 (.444)	9–7 (.563)	T-2nd, West
J.T. Wenger (Western Athletic Conference) (2022–present)
2022	Wenger	17–10 (.630)	9–5 (.643)	5th
Total:		1097–638-9 (.632)
National champion         Postseason invitational champion         Conference regular season champion         Conference regular season and conference tournament champion       Division regular season champion       Division regular season and conference tournament champion       Conference tournament champion

See also

• List of NCAA Division I women's volleyball programs

References

1. "UTA Color Palette". Retrieved August 29, 2022.
2. "University of Texas at Arlington Accepts Invitation to Join WAC" (Press release). Western Athletic Conference. January 21, 2022. Retrieved January 22, 2022.
3. "VB: UTA falls in four sets to Texas State".
4. Carter, O.K. (2009-02-23). "UT-Arlington arena long-sought goal for city, school". Fort Worth Business Press. Vol. 21, no. 6. Fort Worth, Texas. p. 7. Archived from the original on 2011-07-11.
5. Tronche, John-Laurent (2009-02-16). "UT-Arlington to build $73 million events facility". Fort Worth Business Press. Vol. 21, no. 6. Fort Worth, Texas. p. 4. Archived from the original on 2011-07-11.

External links

• Official website