The UTEP volleyball team is new to the Mountain West, but when the preseason coaches poll came out last week, the Miners were an obvious choice for No. 1.
UTEP volleyball — El Paso's and the Miners' premier athletic program — enters the 2026 season carrying the weight of lofty expectations.
The volleyball team opens Saturday, Aug. 29, against Tulsa in Las Cruces, then returns home Sunday, Aug. 30, to unveil the renovated Memorial Gym against longtime rival New Mexico State.
The Miners are looking for a third consecutive trip to the NCAA tournament.
Fellow Mountain West newcomers UC Davis and Grand Canyon are expected to be the top competition for UTEP, according to the coaches' poll.
The top two teams in last year's Mountain West, tournament entry Utah State and Colorado State, are off to the Pac-12.
What the poll represents is what UTEP has built.
“We talk about it a lot in our program," head coach Ben Wallis said. "The expectation here is that we win; the expectation is here that is that we're going put together 20-win seasons; and anything short of that for our group is a disappointment.”
UTEP volleyball carries torch for El Paso
UTEP was 25-5 last year when it lost to North Carolina in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
“The goal is to go out and win a championship every year, to put another banner in the rafters and that's what we'll be going for," Wallis said. "That's fun that that's the expectation here now. When we got here so many moons ago, there weren’t those expectations.
”What I what I love about it now is that people expect for us to win, they expect for us to put a full season of good volleyball together, the city expects us to carry the torch. I love that about our city and I love that about what our program is creating.”
UTEP volleyball coach Ben Wallis: ‘Let’s get to work’
To that end, the team isn’t celebrating being picked first in a poll, but those are exactly the expectations Wallis is talking about. That poll, mostly done to generate some hype for the Mountain West on the eve of the season, represents what UTEP has built. The Miners earned this.
”When you move from one conference to another and still be picked first overall, it is pretty cool and it shows of a significant amount of respect for our program and what we've done in college volleyball over the past three to five years,” Wallis said.
”It doesn't mean anything more than that. We enjoyed it for one day, just to say, ‘That's pretty cool. Let's get to work.’ I really could care less if we're No. 1 in conference polls in August. I would love if we were No. 1 in the conference polls in late November.”
Health key for UTEP volleyball
How does that happen? UTEP may never have a roster again quite like what was assembled in 2025, but improved health could be the key for this team to win its first-ever game in the NCAA tournament.
Beyond that, the Miners will need attacking players such as Landry Braziel, Luvina Oguntimehin and Hannah Crowe to fulfill the potential they showed last year as younger, emerging players and for a now-healthy redshirt freshman Mackenzi Davis to make a big return from injury.
If that comes together around the proven excellence of preseason all-conference player Ema Uskokovic and star setter Kalia Kohler, the team could take another step and make some noise at the NCAA tournament in December. That's a lot of ifs, but UTEP's volleyball program is in a place where that can always be on the table.
One hope is that UTEP’s new teraflex floor could reduce injuries.
”No. 1, we’ve got to stay healthy,” Wallis said. “That was something that really cost us last year. If we can stay healthy, that's going to be a big key for this team because we're not as deep, even though we have as much talent. We’re just young. We have young talent, eight freshmen or redshirt freshmen on our roster of our 18 players.
”No. 2 is we have to teach and they have to learn. For us as a staff, our No. 1 priority with this group is we’ve got to be five-star teachers every single day. Lastly, we got to have a little bit of luck roll our way. Last year we just didn't get any of it, we had no luck, we made our own way. We found ways to win in the face of great adversity.
”This year, I would love to see if we could have a couple of little things roll our way. But at the end of the day, we don't control that luck. We just control how hard we play, how much we put into this group, and we're doing a really good job. This is a fun team to be around.”
Miners celebrate renovated gym
What’s also fun to be around is the new court and renovated gym that the team so richly deserved.
”It’s going to be the preeminent place to play in the Mountain West for sure, but honestly, it's one of the coolest places to play in the country,” Wallis said. “And I would say that to anybody, even if Nebraska or Wisconsin or Texas was standing here next to me.
“When we get the lights and the sound and all the bleachers and everything out, rolling on this terriflex floor, it is a cool place to play a college volleyball game.
“We're pinching ourselves still a little bit, to try to figure out how all this happened so fast. Six months ago it didn't look like this, and now, six months later, it looks like one of the best places to play in college volleyball in the country.”
It’s also home to one of the best college volleyball teams in America.
Bret Bloomquist can be reached at bbloomquist@elpasotimes.com; @Bretbloomquist on X.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Analysis: UTEP Miner volleyball carries the torch for El Paso athletics
