On the two dimensions of paper, this could look like a rebuilding season for a UTEP volleyball team that graduated two-thirds of its offense from the historic 2025 NCAA tournament and Conference USA championship team.
As coach Ben Wallis enters his eighth season at the helm of UTEP’s most successful current program, he has a different perspective.
”We’re no flash in the pan,” he said. “We roll in new players and contend for championships.”
UTEP aiming for Mountain West title run
Those expectations are high as UTEP enters its first season in the Mountain West. This season could prove to be test as UTEP looks for its third consecutive NCAA tournament appearance.
While the Miners lose four of their top six offensive producers from last year and are working in six freshmen and two transfers on an 18-player roster, they do bring back a solid contingent of players who looking to make the step up from complimentary pieces to front-line stars.
It also brings back a face of the program in Ema Uskokovic, a preseason all-conference player a year ago who then missed the season to injury. She also missed the 2023 season to injury before a huge 2024, so this will be the Serbian’s sixth year in the program.
“In 2024, after I missed the whole season, right around the same time, (I was) asked the same question and my answer still stays the same: I’m super excited, I’m so happy to be playing again,” Uskokovic said. “I feel like a little kid playing, that’s the best part.”
UTEP volleyball adds eight players
The team also returns freshman Mackenzi Davis, who was trending toward being a conference-freshman-of-the-year candidate last season before an injury in August derailed her season and pushed her UTEP debut to this year.
The eight newcomers include two transfers who could step right in as major players and six freshmen. The transfers include setter Shea Bruntmyer from Stamford, who could join star returnee Kalia Kohler in the two setter system, and libero Lily-Rose Pichon from Norfolk State by way of France. Of the freshman, setter Caryme Molina could also contend for the second setter position.
UTEP coach Ben Wallis: ‘Fun, exciting, athletic, dangerous’
The UTEP volleyball team has built its golden age on its looseness, its deep chemistry and its enthusiastic embrace of the game, and Wallis sees those attributes in this group.
“I can tell you, just from watching them being in here, they’re fun,” Wallis said. “They’re exciting and competitive. … We’re going to be athletic. We’re going to be high flying. As to our personality, what’s we’re going to be like when it gets hard and tough and scary, when we’re down, when we’re nervous? We don’t know that until we get in the middle of it, but you’re gonna see a fun, exciting, athletic, dangerous team.”
The key will be for players who were emerging late last year as complimentary parts to take the next step to join Uskokovic at the top of the lineup. Those players include Landry Braziel, Lauren Perry and Hannah Crowe.
UTEP volleyball’s ‘new challenge’
Senior setter Kalia Kohler (who just learned she has been granted another year of NCAA eligibility, though she doesn’t know yet whether she will use it) said the process of integrating the newcomers is going well.
“As a team we’re working on our communication and finding ways to connect with a new group,” she said. “For older girls like myself, we’ve been working on leadership style and how to lead these girls since we know what to expect.
“Expectations for me have always been the same. It’s how we take on the new challenge.”
The expectations are for another championship.
Bret Bloomquist can be reached at bbloomquist@elpasotimes.com; @Bretbloomquist on X.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: UTEP volleyball ready to prove it is no ‘flash in the pan’
Reporting by Bret Bloomquist, El Paso Times / El Paso Times
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Bret Bloomquist, El Paso Times | USA TODAY Network
