SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS – UT Tyler outlasted St. Mary's on Friday night in a 3-2 (26-24, 25-23, 26-28, 19-25, 15-9) victory to move to 5-0 in Lone Star Conference play.

The Patriots set the Division II era record for kills in a second-straight match with 79, using 22-kill outputs from both Kota Hartman and Autumn Perry to win another five-set marathon victory. UT Tyler nearly defeated St. Mary's in three on Friday night, but a 28-26 third set and 25-19 fourth set victory for the Rattlers forced the Patriots to put forth a 15-9 deciding set win to stay unbeaten in LSC play.

The Division II era record 79 kills helped overcome 33 hitting errors and 11 service errors for the Patriots in the match. UT Tyler out-killed St. Mary's by a 79-to-60 margin, out-dug the Rattlers 94-to-82, but needed all five sets to come out on top after the mass of unforced errors.

Hartman and Perry led four Patriots in double-digit kill figures with their 22-kill performances. Junior Jackie Velzis added 15 kills and Dakota Rogers-Hurtado 10 kills.

UT Tyler closed out a 26-24 first set victory on a 6-1 run after trailing for the majority of the frame. The Patriots led 6-5 early, but didn't regain the lead back until the 23-23 mark a midst the 6-1 run.

The second set saw UT Tyler carry that run of points over as the Patriots led 7-1 and never relinquished the lead despite a late St. Mary's rally that narrowed the set down to 22-21. UT Tyler had a match-high 19 kills in that frame, posting a .333 team hitting percentage.

The Patriots flipped a 16-12 deficit to a 16-16 tie game with four straight points in the third set and then put St. Mary's on the ropes with match point up 24-23. The Rattlers survived that point and then the 25-24 mark before rattling off a 4-1 run to see a fourth set down 2-to-1 in the match.

St. Mary's led that frame from start-to-finish, capitalizing on 10 UT Tyler hitting errors in the set to win 25-19.

UT Tyler strung together a pair of key four-point runs in the deciding fifth set to take a second-straight back-and-forth battle. UT Tyler opened a 9-4 lead, survived a string of four straight hitting errors that allowed St. Mary's to get back into the frame at 9-8, and then scored four unanswered points of their own to eventually come out on top with a 15-9 win.

Setter Saige Rivera went for 66 assists, one shy of her program-record 67 assist performance in UT Tyler's most recent outing against Dallas Baptist. Rivera captained a Patriot offense that hit .214 on the night with 79 kills in 215 swings.

Libero Addison Evans led the Patriots with 28 digs, serving as one of four defensive specialists to go for double-digit dig totals in the match. Sophomore Bella Briceno totaled 20 digs while Emma Vazquez and Makayla Villarreal totaled 13 and 12 digs respectively.

UT Tyler finishes the evening one of just two remaining 5-0 teams in Lone Star Conference play alongside #9 West Texas A&M. The Patriots move to 8-5 on the year with the victory.

UT Tyler will head to St. Edward's tomorrow afternoon for a 2 p.m. first serve.