SAN ANGELO, TEXAS – #15 UT Tyler came out on the wrong end of a 3-1 (9-25, 18-25, 25-21, 19-25) decision in a battle of Lone Star Conference heavyweights on Saturday afternoon against #4 Angelo State in San Angelo, Texas.
 
Angelo State won convincing 25-9 and 25-18 first and second set victories over the Patriots and hit .328 as a team with 60 kills in 137 swings. UT Tyler tried to work their way back into the match with a 25-21 third set win and hung around until the late stages of set number four, but ultimately dropped their first regular season match of the 2021 calendar year.
 
 The loss for UT Tyler establishes an essential tie at the top of the Lone Star Conference standings between the two programs as the Patriots sit 11-1 in LSC play and Angelo State at 10-1. The Rambelles will now hold the first tie-breaking scenario over the Patriots for the top spot in the regular season rankings with the head-to-head victory, making it imperative that UT Tyler closes out the final five matches of the 2021 season with wins.
 
Senior Mikayla Ware was solid across the board once again for the Patriots, putting down 16 kills in 47 swings for a .234 hitting percentage and also totaling nine digs. Sophomore Evelyn Torres had nine kills for the afternoon as UT Tyler totaled 48 kills for the match.
 
Angelo State did the majority of their offensive damage in the first two sets, totaling 17 and 18 kills while jumping out to 14-5 and 16-8 leads in the opening two frames, respectively. The Rambelles hit .444 and .350 in sets number one and two, and limited UT Tyler to just eight kills in the first set and 12 kills in the second.
 
The Patriots offense slowly came alive as the match wore along, increasing their kill count in each set including 13 in just 28 swings in set number three for a .321 team hitting percentage. That effort allowed UT Tyler to close out that third set on a 6-2 run to notch their lone set victory of the afternoon and keep the match alive despite trailing 2-1.
 
That late run for the Patriots closed out a third set that never saw the scoring differential exceed more than three points until UT Tyler officially registered the set-winning point ahead 25-21.
 
The close play between the top two squads in the league continued through the early stages of the fourth set as the Patriots looked to force their first fifth set of the 2021 season. Angelo State finally pulled ahead at the 11-8 mark, and maintained that advantage before eventually pulling away with a 5-1 run to close out the set 25-19, and the match.
 
Libero Savannah Guzman led the Patriots with 13 digs for the afternoon, while setter Callie Craus totaled a team high 28 digs and reached double-double figures with 11 digs. UT Tyler finished the match with a .189 hitting percentage, scoring 48 kills in 143 swings.
 
UT Tyler will return home for their last pair of games inside the Herrington Patriot Center of the regular season next weekend against Texas Woman's and DBU. First serve is schedule for 6 p.m. on Friday night and 1 p.m. on Saturday afternoon.