TYLER, TEXAS – #25 UT Tyler moved to 2-0 in Lone Star Conference play and extended their regular-season winning streak to 18 straight in a 3-0 (25-22, 25-16, 25-21) sweep of Eastern New Mexico on Saturday afternoon.
 
The Patriots followed up a 3-1 win over West Texas A&M on Friday night with a no-doubt 3-0 victory on Saturday afternoon over an Eastern New Mexico team that was limited to just 32 kills for the match. The Patriots on the other hand, notched 48 kills in just three sets of action, with junior Christina Escamilla leading the way offensively with 13 kills.
 
Escamilla needed just 19 swings to post that double-digit kill total, recording an attack percentage of .632 for the match as UT Tyler hit .236 as a team on the day.
 
The Patriots relinquished the lead just twice throughout the first two sets, cruising to 25-22 and 25-16 victories in the opening frames. The third set saw the Greyhounds put up a bit more of a fight, but seven kills from sophomore Evelyn Torres throughout the set was too much to overcome.
 
Torres reached double-digit kills in her own right for the match, finishing with a team-high 15 kills and a .323 hitting percentage for the match.
 
UT Tyler opened up set number one on a 10-5 run to get the afternoon started, and then fended off a late Greyhound rally to jump ahead 1-0 in the match. Eastern New Mexico narrowed the deficit to just two in the late stages of the match at the 23-21 mark, but failed to slow down Escamilla for the final two UT Tyler points to fall 25-22.
 
Escamilla had eight kills in the opening set alone on 11 swings.
 
UT Tyler led early in the second and then used an 8-1 run midway through the action to extend a comfortable lead at the 17-8 mark. The Patriots finished off the second set on a 5-2 run to move to 2-0 in the match.
 
UT Tyler had kill totals of 17, 14 and 17 for the three sets, while limiting the Greyhounds to nine kills in the second and third.
 
That third set was easily the most competitive of the match as Eastern New Mexico pieced together a run of five straight points to jump ahead with a 15-13 advantage. UT Tyler answered with six straight points of their own following the brief Greyhound lead, five of which came by way of kills for the Patriots.
 
That 19-15 lead in favor of UT Tyler turned into a quick 24-19 lead, and then was finished off with a kill by senior Hattie Murray to secure regular season win number 18 in a row and the second Lone Star Conference win of the weekend for the Patriots.
 
Junior libero Savannah Guzman was fantastic for the Patriots once again on Saturday afternoon, leading all competitors with 15 digs for the match. UT Tyler finished with a 54-to-47 advantage in the digs column for the match, and also added six blocks to the defensive effort.
 
Senior Mikayla Ware added eight kills and nine digs to the box score, while junior Maiya Peña totaled a team-high four blocks.
 
UT Tyler moves to 6-0 on the year and begins their conference schedule with a 2-0 mark heading into next weekend's road LSC openers against St. Mary's and St. Edward's.
 
Those matches are slated for a 6 p.m. start on Friday evening in San Antonio against St. Mary's, and a 1 p.m. start on Saturday afternoon against St. Edward's.