The way UTEP volleyball coach Ben Wallis tells it, there’s a part of Alyssa Sianez that would be fine with never being noticed.
That’s not the way of it for the Miners’ junior defensive specialist.
In a sport for tall women, her 5-foot-3 frame stands out. As a libero she’s wears a different color jersey from everyone else on her team. As a former walk-on legacy from El Paso High, who earned a scholarship, she brings a hometown-hero element to the court.
For fans — and there have been more and more of them in Memorial Gym as UTEP has gone from sad-sack to burgeoning power — Sianez is the player who appears on the ball to end the opponents’ attack and begin the transition to UTEP’s offense.