DENTON, TEXAS – UT Tyler pulled through after being forced into a fifth set to secure win number four to open up the season on Wednesday night against Texas Woman's.
The win sealed a two-match sweep over the Pioneers (0-2, 0-2 LSC) on their home court for the Patriots (4-0, 4-0 LSC) as the 3-2 (25-23, 25-23, 23-25, 22-25, 15-11) win did not come without it's share of ups and downs. After jumping out to a 2-0 lead in the match thanks to a pair of 25-23 first and second set victories, Texas Woman's answered with their first two set wins of the series to force a fifth and final set.
UT Tyler pulled through in the fifth set with a 15-11 win thanks to a balanced attack of three Patriots that notched double-digit kill totals in Hannah Callison (17), Maiya Pena (14) and Mikayla Ware (12) for the match.
UT Tyler now sits atop the Central Division standings with a record of 4-0 after the opening two weeks of Lone Star Conference play and will get set for a showdown with fellow undefeated divisional rival Texas A&M-Commerce on Tuesday and Wednesday night inside the Herrington Patriot Center.
How It Happened: A balanced first set for both teams that saw no larger than a three-point lead for either team finally went to UT Tyler after the Patriots were able to avoid letting the set get away after leading 23-20. Texas Woman's went on a quick 3-1 run coming out of a timeout before a Christina Escamilla kill finally closed out the opening frame with a 25-23 victory in favor of the Patriots.
The second set was much of the same as this time around neither team managed to extend a lead of more than just two points in what was turning into a high-paced match. UT Tyler trailed 21-20 in the late stages of the match before flipping the script on the Pioneers thanks to back-to-back kills from Evelyn Torres to jump ahead 23-21. The Patriots never relinquished the lead from then on and notched their 10th straight set victory dating back to last week's matches against DBU to open the 2021 campaign.
TWU finally broke free for the first time by either team in the match in the third set and led 23-19 before finally stealing away the first set from UT Tyler with a 25-23 third set victory, the third straight score of it's kind of the match. Both teams committed just a single attack error in the third set.
UT Tyler made a late comeback in the fourth set after Texas Woman's maintained a lead from the 4-3 mark all the way until the Patriots were able to claw their way back into the set and tied the score up at 20-20. Three costly errors from the Patriots allowed Texas Woman's to force UT Tyler into a fifth set for the first time this season following a 25-22 fourth set victory.
The Patriots rose to the challenge of their first fifth set of 2021 and rode the momentum of five kills from Kylee Becker in the fifth set alone to win 15-11 and secured their fourth-straight victory. Three of those five Becker kills came as part of a 6-0 run to finish the match for the Patriots after trailing 11-10 heading into the late stages of the match. Ware got that rally of six straight points off of six straight kills for the Patriots started and evened the set up at 11-11 before Becker made her presence felt with her first of three kills in the final six points.
By The Numbers: UT Tyler hit .242 for the match, bettering the Pioneer's hit percentage which stood at .214… Both teams defended the net well with TWU totaling 20 blocks and the Patriots totaling 18… UT Tyler had just 23 attack errors for the match while Texas Woman's had 27… UT Tyler failed to hit better than .200 as a team in just a single set, the fourth set (.163), while TWU failed to reach the .200 team hitting percentage mark in both the second (.171) and fifth (.074) set… UT Tyler had their highest team hitting percentage in the fifth set (.320) and made just a single error as a team in that set.
Patriot Standouts: Taylor Stoops continued to impress with 32 assists and 21 digs to record a double-double… Ware also had a double-double with 12 kills and 19 digs… Hattie Murray totaled eight blocks, tying the ninth highest single-game block total in UT Tyler volleyball history… Savannah Guzman also totaled 15 digs for the night… Callie Craus nearly matched Swoops with 26 assists of her own… Callison led the team with 17 kills… Pena had 14 kills.
What's Next: UT Tyler will take on undefeated Texas A&M-Commerce (2-0, 2-0 LSC), who opened their season this week with a pair of five-set wins against DBU this week. The Lions and Patriots are set to meet on Tuesday night and Wednesday night inside the Herrington Patriot Center with first serve set for 6 p.m. on both nights.
