The team looks primed to dominate once again.
The University of Tulsa volleyball team is off to a perfect start, with wins over New Mexico State, University of Texas at El Paso, New Mexico and Pepperdine. It is their best start to a season since 2009, and the second best start to a season in school history.
Last year, TU’s volleyball team had a 25-7 record (the best record since 2012) and reached the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) tournament before falling to Miami in the first round. In the offseason, they lost three seniors to graduation and brought in four from the transfer portal and three incoming freshmen. It is not surprising that the team is rolling early in the season, but no less impressive, and very exciting for all Tulsa Volleyball fans.
Tulsa played NMSU last year, beating them soundly, and did so again last weekend. Like NMSU, UNM struggled to find a rhythm last year, ending with a 13-16 record (New Mexico State ended 14-16). So while there is little to celebrate with those two wins for TU, they got the job done. UTEP and Pepperdine are a different story. UTEP had a better record than TU, finishing 25-5, and also made it to the NCAA tournament, whereas Pepperdine just barely missed out with a slightly worse record (21-8) on an at-large NCAA bid. Both teams had a good offseason as well — though in different ways — Pepperdine focused on maintaining the core of their team, while UTEP went and got a lot of players from the transfer portal. In other words, both should still be very good teams this year, although it is too early to make any final judgments, and TU beat them both.
With strong results so early on in the season, Tulsa Volleyball should expect success and hopefully a sixth NCAA tournament appearance. It would also be only the third time TU has made consecutive NCAA tournaments (they made the tournament three years in a row from 2010-2012).
The team plays Arizona next, continuing their run in the Bluejay Invitational after beating Pepperdine. They will play Creighton to finish out the weekend. Arizona is a team of similar quality to TU’s last year and seemingly this year — they went to the second round of the NCAA tournament, so it ought to be a challenge, but one that Tulsa could very well overcome to tie their best-ever start to a season with six straight wins. Creighton is a different story — routinely one of the best teams in the nation, last year they made the elite eight in the NCAA tournament. But although Creighton will be a much tougher test than the opponents they have faced so far, Tulsa Volleyball, will not be punching above their weight, , but with a team of a similar caliber, looking for: a good run in the NCAA tournament. Though conference play does not start for a couple weeks, there are going to be many exciting games for TU in the meantime, pitting good teams against each other.
