TYLER, TEXAS – #18 UT Tyler will look to extend it's 21 game regular season winning streak on Friday and Saturday with road matches against Cameron and Midwestern State.
 
The Patriots have reeled off five straight 3-0 Lone Star Conference victories entering the weekend and stand as one of just two undefeated teams in all of Division II volleyball alongside Nova Southeastern. UT Tyler is tied atop the Lone Star Conference with #3 Angelo State with league records of 6-0, and will take their second LSC road trip of the 2021 season this weekend.
 
Friday's match with Cameron is scheduled for a 5:30 p.m. start and Saturday's match against Midwestern State is slated for a 12 p.m. start.
 
CRUISING THROUGH AT THE HPC
 
UT Tyler extended the LSC sweep streak to five straight and the regular season winning streak to 21 straight in dominant 3-0 victories over Oklahoma Christian on Friday night and UAFS on Saturday afternoon inside the HPC last weekend. The Patriots allowed either team to eclipse the 20-point mark just once in any of the six set victories for UT Tyler between the two matches, and out-killed the competition by a 99-to-52 margin.
 
The Patriots hit .327 for the weekend and were led by outstanding offensive performances by the combination of Mikayla Ware and Christina Escamilla. Ware recorded her third and fourth straight double-doubles in the two wins, notching 13 kills and 10 digs in Friday night's game and 16 kills and 11 digs in the Saturday win.
 
Escamilla hit .581 between the two wins, putting down 15 kills in 18 swings for a .778 attack percentage on Friday night, and was two swings away from qualifying for the school record mark in individual hitting percentage for a single match.
 
SETTER OF THE WEEK
 
Junior Callie Crause continued to orchestrate the nation's best offensive unit over the weekend, totaling 51 assists between the two matches, and was named the Lone Star Conference Setter of the Week for her efforts on Wednesday. Craus captained an offense that hit .347 and .308 in the two matches, notching 30 assists on Friday and 21 assists on Saturday.
 
Craus, alongside fellow setters Taylor Stoops and Jenna White, have engineered the nation's best assist per game unit, averaging 14.94 assists per set.
 
CLOSING IN ON IMPRESSIVE FEATS
 
The 2021 Patriots have a host of attainable school and national marks that they can realistically reach if they continue to play at the level of volleyball they have produced through the first 10 games of 2021. Head coach Lyndsay Mashe and junior Savannah Guzman both have chances to reach impressive marks in the respective careers in this weekend's matches.
 
Coach Mashe enters the weekend with a record of 98-36 in her six-year career as head coach of the Patriots, and will reach the 100 win mark with wins in this weekend's matches against Cameron and Midwestern State. Mashe is a combined 292-158 between her stints at East Texas Baptist and UT Tyler, and will have a chance to reach the 300 career win mark in the coming weeks.
 
Guzman enters the weekend on track to eclipse her own impressive career mark, sitting 26 digs shy of recording her 1,000th career dig as a Patriot. The San Antonio, Texas native has totaled 974 in her four-year career as a Patriot, including 166 in 2021.
 
RISING ONCE AGAIN
 
UT Tyler moved up a spot in this week's edition of the AVCA Division II Coaches Top 25 Poll to no. 18, their highest ranking of the 2021 season to date. UT Tyler and Angelo State stayed as the two ranked LSC teams in the fifth regular season edition of the poll as the Rambelles checked in at no. 3 with a 13-2 overall record.
 
UT Tyler and Nova Southeastern, the lone two remaining undefeated teams in the country, sit 18^th and 20^th in the poll despite the unblemished records. The Patriots hold 3-1 wins over two teams that were receiving votes in the poll at the time of their match in Central Oklahoma and West Texas A&M, and have been essentially perfect in their last five Lone Star Conference matches to this point.
 
STAYING IN THE NO. 1 SPOT
 
UT Tyler stayed atop the national lead in Division II volleyball with an average of 15.58 kills per set through 10 matches in 2021. The Patriots also lead the nation in assists per set with an average of 14.64.
 
The Patriots have steadily climbed the national statistical rankings in a pair of additional categories after staying atop the kills and assists per set category. UT Tyler has moved up to the no. 14 slot in team hitting percentage with a .259 mark for the year, best in the Lone Star Conference, and ranks 19^th in the nation with 18.39 digs per set.
 
UT Tyler leads the Lone Star Conference in four major statistical categories including assists per set, digs per set, hitting percentage and kills per set.
 
Junior Christina Escamilla regained her lead in individual hitting percentage with a .581 mark this weekend, and ranks no. 1 in the category with a .486 season percentage. Ware is also rising in the national statistical rankings, and sits 18^th in Division II volleyball with 4.09 kills per set.
 
SCOUTING CAMERON
 
The Aggies have dropped 15 straight matches entering Friday night's match and have posted a 1-16 record so far in 2021. Cameron is 0-6 in Lone Star Conference play, and will be coming off of 3-0 and 3-1 losses against Texas Woman's and DBU in their last two matches.
 
The Aggies average just 9.5 kills per set and have recorded a .116 team hitting percentage for the year. The strength of the Cameron efforts come in the blocking category as the team averages 1.6 blocks per match, which ranks near the middle of the pack in the Lone Star Conference.
 
Arianna Navarrete leads the team in kills (144), digs (138) and aces (17) on the year. Jessica Lipkit is the squad's leading blocker with 42 on the year.
 
SCOUTING MIDWESTERN STATE
 
Midwestern State enters the weekend with a 3-11 record in 2021 and a 1-5 mark in Lone Star Conference play. The Mustangs have lost five straight matches after opening up LSC play with a 3-2 win over Texas A&M International back on Sept. 17.
 
Sophomore Lauryn Bourne leads Midwestern Stats with 166.5 points scored this season, and has totaled 149 kills on the year. Bourne and Lissette Lefforge have provided the majority of the offensive production for the Mustangs this year as Lefforge ranks second on the squaf in both kills (121) and points (157.5).
 
Midwestern State will begin their weekend with a 6 p.m. match against Texas A&M-Commerce on Friday night.