TYLER, TEXAS - #16 UT Tyler will meet Texas A&M-Commerce on the road on Saturday evening at 6 p.m. for the lone match of the week for the Patriots.
 
The lone match of the week is not without heavy implications however, as both teams received a ranking in the first edition of the South Central Regional rankings as announced by the NCAA earlier this week. UT Tyler is also in pursuit of the no. 1 overall seed into the 2021 Lone Star Conference Postseason Tournament, which would allow the Patriots the right to host the event on Nov. 18-20 inside the Herrington Patriot Center.
 
Just three matches remain on the 2021 schedule for UT Tyler, all three of which will take place on the road, as the team looks to keep pace atop the LSC standings alongside Angelo State and West Texas A&M, who like the Patriots have just one loss in LSC play. UT Tyler enters Saturday's meeting with Texas A&M-Commerce with a 17-1 overall record on the year, and a 13-1 record in LSC play.
 
LAST WEEK
 
UT Tyler finished the regular season unbeaten on their home court in 2021 with 3-1 and 3-0 wins over Texas Woman's on Friday night and DBU on Saturday night. The Patriots overcame a slow start to Friday's match that saw UT Tyler drop just their second set in seven home matches in a 25-19 loss to the Pioneers.
 
The Patriots stormed back with dominant 25-19 set wins of their own in the third and fourth sets and carried that momentum into a 3-0 sweep of DBU on Saturday afternoon. That sweep was the ninth 3-0 victory for UT Tyler in LSC play and the 11^th overall for the 2021 season.
 
Senior Hannah Callison powered a steady UT Tyler offense in Saturday's match with 11 kills on 24 swings, while Savannah Guzman (22), Mikayla Ware (12) and Taylor Stoops (11) all notched double-digit kill totals in the match.  
 
THE FIRST EDITION
 
The Patriots opened up at no. 5 in the first edition of the 2021 Division II South Central Regional rankings as announced by the regional advisory committee on Wednesday afternoon. The ranking is the first of three editions of the South Central Regional rankings that will be published prior to the announcement of the 2021 South Central Regional Tournament field on Monday, Nov. 22.
 
UT Tyler slid into the no. 5 spot behind three RMAC teams in MSU Denver (no. 1), Colorado School of Mines (no. 2), Angelo State (no. 3) and Regis (no. 4). The committee made no secret that the top teams in the RMAC are valued at a higher rate than the top teams in the LSC in the first edition of the regional polls with three RMAC teams ranked in the top five, all three of which feature more losses than UT Tyler on their overall record, and two of which have the same number of losses as LSC foe West Texas A&M.
 
Angelo State, who defeated the Patriots by a 3-1 margin back on Oct. 23, stands as the highest ranked Lone Star Conference team at no. 3, despite sitting in a tie atop the LSC standings alongside both UT Tyler and West Texas A&M. West Texas A&M earned the no. 7 spot in the first edition of the rankings despite holding an overall record of 18-2, with one of their losses coming at the hands of UT Tyler back on Sept. 17 inside the HPC.
 
The first edition of the rankings is quite simply just that, the first of three editions of the poll that will undoubtedly change as there is plenty of volleyball left for both the LSC and RMAC over the course of the next few weeks. Wednesday's poll made effectively certain that if the Patriots defeat Texas A&M-Commerce, Western New Mexico and UT Permian Basin in their final three matches of the regular season, a crazy sequence of events would have to occur in order for UT Tyler not to be selected as one of eight teams into the field.
 
Two of those eight spots will be awarded to the winners of the RMAC Postseason Tournament and the LSC Postseason Tournament, with the six at-large bids going to the remaining top six highest remaining teams in the regional rankings. The regional tournament will take place on Dec. 2-4 at the no. 1 seed's host site.
 
FIRST THING'S FIRST
 
Head coach Lyndsay Mashe and her team still need to remain focused despite the news this week of the program's standing within the postseason playoff discussions. The Patriots begin their end of the regular season stretch on Saturday with a Texas A&M-Commerce team that has won eight out of their last nine matches and appeared at no. 10 in the South Central Regional rankings.
 
Coach Mashe and the Patriots will then make the dreaded trip west to Western New Mexico and UT Permian Basin next weekend for the final set of LSC games of the 2021 season. UT Tyler will make the 893 mile drive to Silver City, N.M. for a Thursday night match, head 443 miles to Odessa, Texas for Saturday's match against UT Permian Basin, and then head back to Tyler on a 454 mile trip to finish off what will be a 1,790 mile bus trip next week.
 
The Patriots will then need to win three straight matches over a three-day span in order to absolutely guarantee their spot in the South Central Regional Tournament with a victory in the 2021 LSC Postseason Tournament on Nov. 18-20. Needless to say, there is still a ton of volleyball to play and a host of storylines that could be written for UT Tyler as the 2021 season heads to the finish line.
 
STATS CHECK
 
UT Tyler enters this week's match with Texas A&M-Commerce ranked third in the LSC in both hitting percentage (.245) and opponent hitting percentage (.144). The Patriots have led the league from start-to-finish in kills per set (14.93), and rank second nationally in the category behind Washburn (14.93).
 
Senior Mikayla Ware has averaged the second most points per set in the LSC this season (4.45), and also sits second in the LSC with an average of 3.95 kills per set. Junior Maiya Peña is averaging the second most blocks per set (1.04), while libero Savannah Guzman sits third in the conference with an average of 4.93 digs per set.
 
The setter combination of Callie Craus and Taylor Stoops continues to lead the way for an assist unit that leads all of Division II volleyball with an average of 14.28 assists per set. Craus ranks eighth with an average of 6.98 assists per set while Stoops sits 13^th in the league with 5.39 assists per set.
 
SCOUTING AND HISTORY WITH TEXAS A&M-COMMERCE
 
The Lions have won 11 of their last 13 matches, including a signature 3-2 road victory over Angelo State back on Oct. 22 in San Angelo, Texas. Texas A&M-Commerce sits at no. 10 in the South Central Regional rankings, and will be looking for their fourth consecutive trip to the South Central Regional Tournament.
 
The Lions sit fifth in the LSC standings with a record of 10-4 in LSC play entering the weekend, and have won their last three matches all by 3-0 final tallies.
 
A pair of freshman in Essence Allen and Maddy Rashford have eclipsed the 200-kill mark for the Lions in 2021 in an offense that has the fourth best team hitting percentage (.227) and kills per set (13.68) metrics against LSC competition this fall.
 
Junior Celeste Vela leads the LSC with an average of 10.45 assists per set, while Lyric Hebert ranks seventh in the LSC with 4.59 digs per set.
 
UT Tyler holds the all-time advantage with the Lions at 4-3, and has won each of the last four meetings between the two program's, all of which came during the 2021 spring schedule. UT Tyler won two of those matches by 3-1 finals and two by 3-0 finals last spring after suffering 3-0 defeats in each of the inaugural three matches between the two teams.