A new part of Wildcat volleyball’s season starts Thursday night when it plays the first game of the conference tournament. 

Head Coach Ijeoma Moronu Alstrup’s squad will take on the University of Texas-Arlington on Thursday at 7 p.m. as part of the Western Athletic Conference Tournament, hosted this year by ACU in Moody Coliseum. 

This is the second consecutive year that the team has faced UTA in the first round of the postseason tournament. Last season, UTA won the conference tournament and earned the WAC’s automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, but it only returned two players in the offseason. 

The Wildcats have beaten UTA in the two matchups this season, but Avery Thaler, sophomore middle blocker from Fairfield, said the team is still placing a big emphasis on playing well despite the two wins. 

“It could be easy to come in overconfident and think, ‘It’s just UTA, like we got the first round,’” Thaler said. “No, we have to focus on this game. Treat this game as a championship game. We’re going to come into this game and do our jobs on the court so that we can get to the next match.”

Moronu Alstrup agreed, saying the team has to take the tournament one game at a time, especially since only one is guaranteed. 

“We’re definitely taking it one match at a time,” Moronu Alstrup said. “Our ultimate goal is obviously to be playing through the weekend, but we have got to focus on tomorrow first. Nothing changes in regards to us focusing on our side of the court and doing what we know how to do well.”

Thaler said the team is very well-motivated toward tonight’s game, and the team members have been looking to the WAC Tournament since getting back to campus and back to practice in July. 

“Everything we’ve worked towards this whole season comes down to this week, which can feel like a lot of pressure,” she said. “But we have the chance to actually do what we’ve been talking about. We’ve been talking about winning a WAC championship since July 7th, when we got here.”

If the Wildcats win Thursday night, it will be the program’s first WAC Tournament win, and the team will move on to play Utah Valley University Friday night at 7 p.m.