TYLER, TEXAS – The University of Texas at Tyler volleyball program honored their 2022 seniors with a 3-1 (20-25, 25-17, 25-12, 25-16) victory over St. Edward's in the final home match of their careers on Saturday afternoon.
 
UT Tyler responded to a 25-20 first set defeat with three straight sets of dominating volleyball to send Mikayla Ware, Savannah Guzman, Hattie Murray, Hannah Callison and Kylee Becker out with a home victory in their final action on the court inside the Herrington Patriot Center. Ware totaled 24 kills and 13 digs and joined Guzman and setter Adeline Ortman as the three Patriots with double-doubles in the match.
 
Ortman paced the Patriots with 26 assists and 15 digs for an outstanding match for the sophomore, while Guzman added 14 digs and 10 assists to complete a stellar career inside the HPC for the senior. UT Tyler hit north of .300 in each of their three set victories, finishing the match with 58 kills in 144 swings for a .250 team hitting percentage.
 
St. Edward's jumped on the Patriots early with a 17-10 lead in the first set, and then survived two Patriot comebacks that narrowed the deficit down to three points at the 17-14 mark and then two points at the 19-17 mark to claim the 25-20 first set win. From that point forward it was all UT Tyler as the Patriots cleaned up their work on the offensive side of the floor after committing 10 attacking errors in the opening frame.
 
UT Tyler didn't commit more than five errors in a set from that point forward, and limited the Hilltoppers to less than 10 kills in three out of the four sets on the afternoon.
 
The Patriots responded to a 7-2 deficit in the second set with five straight points to even the tally up, and then later used a streak of four straight points of their own to pad an 18-13 advantage. UT Tyler evened the match up at 1-1 with five straight points by way of kills as part of a 5-1 run to claim the second set victory by a 25-17 final.
 
That momentum immediately translated into a 12-4 lead to begin the third set, and continued into a 20-9 lead before St. Edward's was finally able to reach double-double points at the 20-10 mark. UT Tyler put down 18 kills in just 36 swings in that third frame to post a match-high .361 hitting percentage in the frame and regained the advantage at 2-1 in the match.
 
A back-and-forth start to the fourth and final set swung in UT Tyler's favor thanks to seven straight unanswered Patriot points coming out of the 10-9 mark. That 15-10 lead was narrowed to just two points twice at the 16-14 and 18-16 mark before the Patriots sent off the 2022 seniors from their home court with another run of seven straight answered points to claim the 25-16 win.
 
Ware hit .294 for the match with 24 kills on 55 swings and added three blocks to finish the afternoon with 27 points for UT Tyler. Senior Hattie Murray added seven kills and four blocks while posting a hitting percentage of .400 for the night to end her career inside the HPC with an outstanding performance.
 
Callison added seven kills to the effort and senior Kylee Becker chipped in four kills and three digs to also contribute to the Patriot dominance in the final three sets of action in the match. Freshman Jeorgia Jones also had a solid outing, putting down eight kills and adding three blocks.
 
The Patriots finished the afternoon with 58 kills and 67 digs to outpace the Hilltoppers in both categories by a substantial margin.
 
UT Tyler will finish the 2022 regular season next week on the road at UT Permian Basin and Angelo State. The Patriots sit 17-8 on the year and 10-4 in Lone Star Conference play.