TYLER, TEXAS – UT Tyler extended their season-opening win streak to three games on Tuesday night with a 3-0 (25-21, 25-20, 25-11) win over Texas Woman's University.
The win also extended the Patriot's set-win streak to nine straight set victories, culminating in a 25-11 victory in the third and final set to complete the sweep of the Pioneers. UT Tyler moves to 3-0 on the season, all three victories which have taken place in Lone Star Conference play, and will look to sweep Texas Woman's (0-1, 0-1 LSC) in the weekly series tomorrow night in Denton.
UT Tyler's three straight wins to open the 2021 spring campaign now stands as the program's longest Lone Star Conference win streak after beginning play in the league last fall.
How It Happened: UT Tyler opened the first set with a 4-1 advantage before the two teams kicked off a back-and-forth opening frame. The Patriots looked as if they were finally going to pull away thanks to a Hattie Murray kill to open up a 10-7 lead, but three straight points from the Pioneers put an end to the advantage. That advantage would not exceed more than two points for either team until the late stages of the set as UT Tyler went on a 6-1 run to win the opening set by a final total of 25-21.
The second set proved to be much of the same for the Patriots as Texas Woman's came out with a little bit more effort in the second set. The separation never reached more than three points until UT Tyler once again pulled away in the final stages of the set, this time with a 7-1 run to pull away and win the second set by a 25-20 final tally.
The third and final set was all UT Tyler as the Patriots left no doubt after surviving hard fought victories in the opening two frames. A 13-8 advantage in favor of the Patriots was extended to 20-8 thanks to seven straight points for UT Tyler, four of which were earned thanks to attack errors by Texas Woman's. The Pioneers would produce one more final stand coming out of the seven-point run for UT Tyler, but couldn't withstand a continued onslaught of five straight points for the Patriots to finish with a 25-11 third set victory.
By The Numbers: UT Tyler hit .315 for the match and totaled 40 kills to Texas Woman's 35 kills… The Patriots committed just 11 attack errors while TWU had 20… The best set for UT Tyler came in the third frame as they hit .444 for the set, committing just a single attack error in the frame… The Patriots totaled 42 digs and 37 assists, both higher totals than TWU… The Pioneers highest hitting percentage in any set was .211 and they only had more kills than UT Tyler in the first set (15-to-10)
UT Tyler Stat Leaders: Mikayla Ware finished with double-digit kills for the third straight match with 10 kills on 31 swings… She hit .226 for the match and also posted six digs… Hannah Callison finished with nine kills on 21 swings and hit .238 for the match… Taylor Stoops and Callie Craus provided a balanced assists effort with 16 and 13 respectively… Callison also had three blocks… Savannah Guzman led the way with 11 digs, the lone Patriot to total double-digit digs… Stoops was one dig away from a double-double, recording nine digs to go along with her 16 assists… Christian Escamilla continued to attack at an efficient rate, hitting .545 for the match with eight kills in just 11 swings.
TWU Stat Leaders: Kaia Saylor led the team with 10 kills, hitting .200 for the match… Bailey Wozniak totaled 19 assists… Abbie Sprague led the way with 10 digs… Wozniak also had three blocks… Addison Mulroney finished with eight kills and hit .238 for the evening.
What's Next: UT Tyler and Texas Woman's will complete their series with another match tomorrow night inside the Kitty Magee Arena. First serve is set for 6 p.m.
