ODESSA, TEXAS – The University of Texas at Tyler volleyball team fell by a 3-2 (25-18, 25-19, 21-25, 22-25, 6-15) final in their regular season finale against UT Permian Basin Saturday afternoon.
 
The loss will solidify UT Tyler into the no. 2 seed into the 2021 Lone Star Conference Volleyball Championships. The Patriots struggled to slow down a Falcon offense that hit .282 on Saturday afternoon in what ended up being the Patriot's first trip to a fifth set despite an early 2-0 lead in the match.
 
UT Tyler won those first two sets by comfortable 25-18 and 25-19 margins, but dropped three straight sets to finish out the regular season at 19-2 overall and 15-2 in Lone Star Conference play. Five different Patriots recorded 10 or more kills on the afternoon, including Kacie Kimbrough and Hannah Callison, who each notched 15 kills on the afternoon.
 
The Patriots closed out both of the first two sets with identical 5-1 runs in order to record those dominant set victories. UT Permian Basin was able to reverse their fortune in the final stages of the third and fourth sets to win 25-21 and 25-22 as UT Tyler struggled to repeat their success they found in the first two frames.
 
The first fifth set of 2021 was not friendly to the Patriots as they slipped behind 9-3 thanks to six straight Falcon points and were never able to recover from there, falling by a 15-6 tally.
 
Libero Savannah Guzman led the way with 24 digs while Mikayla Ware and Addison Evans both provided solid defensive support with 16 and 15 digs, respectively. Junior Christina Escamilla and Mikayla Ware each had 13 and 12 kills.  
 
UT Tyler will now shift their focus to the 2021 Lone Star Conference Volleyball Championship on Nov. 18-20 in San Angelo, Texas. The Patriots will have a first round bye, and will play the winner of the no. 7 and no. 10 matchup on Tuesday night.