TYLER, TEXAS – UT Tyler came out on the right end of a back-and-forth battle on Wednesday night with a 3-2 (28-26, 14-25, 25-22, 27-29, 15-12) victory over UAFS.
 
Both teams alternated set victories all the way through the match before UT Tyler collected a key win between two teams included in the first edition of the NCAA Division II South Central Regional Rankings. UT Tyler pulled ahead in the deciding fifth set with four straight points coming out of a 9-9 tie, three of which were scored via kill by freshman Kennedy Kays.
 
Kays played a vital role in UT Tyler's fourth straight victory on Wednesday night, providing efficiency for an otherwise tempered Patriot attack with 12 kills on 29 attacks for a .310 hitting percentage. Fellow freshman Shaye Koski piloted the Patriot offense, leading UT Tyler with 19 kills on 54 swings for a .241 hitting percentage.
 
That run of four straight points for the Patriots in the deciding fifth set paved the way for a 15-12 victory. The win in the penultimate frame followed a fourth set in which UT Tyler came marching all the way back from a 14-5 deficit to force the second extra-point set of the night.
 
The Patriots clawed their way back to a 20-13 mark before rattling off nine unanswered points to lead 22-20. UAFS survived match point at 24-23 to ultimately win the set 29-27 to even the match at 2-2, but the momentum generated from the fight displayed by UT Tyler to march themselves all the way back into the frame seemingly translated into the fifth.
 
UT Tyler opened a 5-1 lead in that fifth set, only to surrender six straight UAFS points to fall behind the Lions 6-5. The two squads alternated points up until the crucial 9-9 mark in which Kays rattled off three high-energy kills in four points to put UT Tyler ahead 13-9.
 
UAFS cut the deficit to a pair of points twice before Koski fittingly put down a kill for the final point of the match.
 
The Patriots jumped ahead 1-0 in the match on the winning end of the first of the two extra-point sets in the first with a 28-26 victory. Koski recorded three straight kills to close out that victory after the teams went back-and-forth to a 26-26 mark.
 
Set two was all Lions as they evened the match up at 1-1 following six straight unanswered points to close out the frame for UAFS.
 
UT Tyler put down 18 kills as a team in both the third and fourth sets, culminating in a 25-22 win in the third and the momentum-building comeback in the fourth. The Patriots finished off the night with their most efficient set on the offensive side of the net in the fifth, putting down 11 kills on just 26 swings with just a single attacking error for a .385 hitting percentage.
 
For the night, UT Tyler hit .174 with 69 kills on 213 swings. The Lions were electric at the net defensively, totaling 18 blocks as a unit.
 
Addison Evans (24) and Mikayla Villareal (21) both eclipsed the 20-dig threshold while setter Adilene Ortman went for a career-high 58 assists in the match.
 
Senior Maiya Peña registered 14 points in the match with nine kills, four blocks and an ace. Outside hitters Jeorgia Jones and Sophie Connor each matched Peña with nine kills on the night.
 
The win bolsters the UT Tyler resume over one of the top teams in the Lone Star Conference in a UAFS team that sits 19-6 on the year and 9-3 in Lone Star Conference play. UT Tyler moves to 14-9 and 8-4 in LSC play.
 
The Patriots will visit St. Mary's and St. Edward's on Friday and Saturday.