The Mavericks began competition in the
Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women, as the NCAA didn't sponsor women's sports until the early 1980s. UTA's first coach was
Jody Conradt who was also the head coach for the basketball and softball teams. Right away, the Mavericks were competitors, appearing in the AIAW National Tournament eight out of a possible nine times, finishing as high as sixth nationally in 1981. They placed in the national tournament every year but one. When the NCAA began competition, the Mavericks moved over to the
Southland Conference, where UTA was a founding member in 1963. The Mavericks immediately became the most dominant team in the conference winning the first nine regular season titles. UTA won the first conference tournament in 1982, but the NCAA structure didn't allow UTA to play in a postseason match. Second-seeded Lamar would win the conference tournament in 1983 and 1984 and again the Mavericks missed playing in the postseason. The Mavericks finally won the SLC tournament in 1985 under Head Coach
Lisa Love and would also claim the next five after that. The Mavericks would establish themselves as national contenders as they made four Sweet Sixteen appearances, two Elite Eight's and a Final Four in 1989. The Mavericks slipped in stature during the '90's after Coach Love took over the program at
USC. They were no longer the perennial Southland Conference favorite, though they did win three regular season championships in the '90's and two tournament crowns. Despite having long been removed from the Southland, the volleyball team still is first in regular season championships and three more tournament titles than second place
Texas State. UT Arlington would move from the Southland to the
Western Athletic Conference in
2012, but would spend only one season in the WAC, moving from there to the
Sun Belt Conference. After a later round of conference realignment in the early 2020s led to a major expansion of the Sun Belt's football side, UTA announced in January 2022 that it would return to the WAC that July. In October 2015 against in-state Sun Belt rival Texas State, UTA's volleyball home attendance record at College Park Center was broken with 2,018 fans attending the match. == Facilities ==