SAN ANGELO, TEXAS – No. 2 seeded UT Tyler forced a fifth set after falling behind 2-0 in Thursday afternoon's quarterfinal match of the 2021 Lone Star Conference Volleyball Championships against St. Edward's before ultimately falling by a 3-2 (14-25, 20-25, 25-16, 25-24, 9-15) final.
 
The Patriots will now await to see if they are selected as one of six at-large bids into the South Central Regional Tournament scheduled for Dec. 2-4 at the no. 1 seed's host site. The announcement of that eight-team field will be made on Monday, Nov. 22^nd at 6:30 p.m.
 
UT Tyler came storming back on Thursday afternoon in an attempt to avoid the upset to no. 10 seeded St. Edward's with 25-16 and 26-24 set victories in the third and fourth sets. Those victories evened the match up at 2-2 and forced the second fifth set in as many contests for the Patriots after falling by a 3-2 final in the season finale against UT Permian Basin last Saturday.
 
St. Edward's opened up a 5-2 advantage in that deciding fifth set, forcing a UT Tyler timeout, and then ended the match on a 6-1 run after the Patriots narrowed the deficit to just one at the 9-8 mark. The Hilltoppers 15-9 fifth set win secured the second straight upset for St. Edward's after taking down UAFS on Tuesday night by way of a 3-0 sweep on the Lion's home floor.
 
UT Tyler showed resiliency despite the upset, fending off a match point in the fourth set to give themselves a chance with a deciding fifth set. Sophomore Evelyn Torres fended off the St. Edward's chance at the four-set win with back-to-back kills that flipped the 24-23 St. Edward's advantage into a 25-24 UT Tyler lead.
 
An attack error by the Hilltoppers made it three straight Patriots points and gave UT Tyler the 26-24 victory.
 
That fourth set win followed up a third set in which the Patriot's finally clicked offensively in route to a 25-16 win. UT Tyler posted 16 kills in that third set, their highest set total of the match, and rebounded with just three attacking errors on 45 swings after committing six in the first set and four in the second set.
 
The Patriots hit .167 for the match, totaling 53 kills on the afternoon while allowing 61 to the Hilltoppers.
 
Four Patriots posted double-doubles in the match as senior Mikayla Ware and sophomore Evelyn Torres both posted 17 digs. Ware had 14 kills to lead UT Tyler in the match and Torres had 12 to stand as two of the three Patriots alongside Christina Escamilla (11) in double-digit kill figures.
 
Both setters, Callie Craus and Taylor Stoops, joined Ware and Torres with double-doubles. Craus posted 25 assists and 15 digs while Stoops had 19 assists to go along with 14 digs.
 
Libero Savannah Guzman paced the five Patriots in double-digit kill totals with 20 digs.

UT Tyler was ranked in the no. 6 slot in the final South Central Regional rankings on Wednesday afternoon prior to Monday afternoon's upcoming reveal of the 64-team field in the NCAA Division II Volleyball National Tournament. The eight teams selected to compete in the South Central Regional Tournament will comprise one of eight regional tournaments to take place over the Dec. 2-4 weekend.
 
Each winner of the RMAC and LSC Postseason Tournament will receive an automatic bid into the regional tournament field, while the six remaining spots will be filled with at-large bids going to the highest remaining ranked teams in the region.