Women's Volleyball | 9/18/2018 12:18:00 PM

TYLER, Texas - The No. 23 ranked UT Tyler Patriots volleyball team will take a short trip east on Tuesday to take on the rival East Texas Baptist University Tigers. The Patriots come into the match with a 7-1 record to start the season and are coming of a 3-0 sweep of LeTourneau to open up American Southwest Conference play. The Tigers come into the match 8-5 overall and are 2-1 in the ASC.

Head coach Lyndsay Mashe, in her third season with UT Tyler, will return to familiar territory back in Marshall where she was the head coach of ETBU for ten seasons, compiling a coaching record of 193-122.

Historically, the Patriots have struggled against ETBU going 4-26 all-time, however two of those wins came last season when they swept ETBU in conference play for the first time in school history. They will ride a lot of momentum coming into Tuesday's match. UT Tyler is ranked for the first time in program history, sitting at No. 23 in the national poll.

This has been due to a stellar start to their season, highlighted by going 4-0 in the Emory College tournament in Atlanta just over two weeks ago. The biggest win was undoubtedly a four-set victory over No. 13 Illinois Wesleyan. UT Tyler then hit the road to Trinity for a tournament where they went 2-1, the one loss being a five-set thriller to No. 4 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps.

UT Tyler has been led by the dynamic duo of juniors Kaitlyn Budisalovich and Loren Guerra. Budisalovich leads the team in kills with 98 on the young season, which is 4th in the ASC. Guerra is not far behind with 80 kills so far. Senior Reighanna Guzmann has been a great all-around player for the Patriots leading the team in service aces with ten on the year and tied for second in digs with 80.

ETBU will look to continue their hot streak, having won seven of their past eight matches. The match is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Ornelas Gymnasium.