Despite a Postponed Season, UTEP Volleyball Scrimmages TX State

As Conference USA postponed the fall soccer and volleyball seasons to the spring, the UTEP volleyball team saw their fall start fizzle away right in front of them. Football is currently going on in C-USA while winter sports haven't announced start dates yet.

Even though they won't play until 2021, second-year head coach Ben Wallis and the Miners will be playing a preseason exhibition series against Texas State in San Marcos on Friday at 5 p.m. MT and Saturday at 9:00 a.m. MT. Friday’s game will be televised on ESPN+.

"We've been playing ourselves and practicing against ourselves since August 7th," Wallis told 600 ESPN El Paso. "My staff kind of laughs and gets frustrated each time we have calendar notifications every weekend saying we were supposed to play in Corpus Christi this weekend. Last weekend, we were supposed to hosting a tournament including NM State. It's been kind of hard knowing we had all these matches scheduled that got canceled but we are really thankful and really excited to compete against a top-50 program and one that went to the NCAA Tournament last year. Perennially, they are a really good Sun Belt team."

The Bobcats finished 24-9 overall in 2019, including a 14-2 outing in the Sun Belt. They lost to UC Santa Barbara in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament (3-1). Texas State (2-0) will compete in the Sun Belt this fall and they are coming off a successful opening weekend where they beat Central Arkansas (3-2) and Stephen F. Austin (3-0) in the SFA Tournament on Sept. 4.

UTEP returns all but one starter from the 2019 roster this year. They are led by junior outside hitter Serena Patterson, the team-leader in kills (259) last year. Wallis enters his sophomore season after a 13-15 (6-8) finish in 2019.