CANYON, TEXAS – UT Tyler volleyball will head into Lone Star Conference play on the heels of a massive 3-2 upset of #13 Angelo State on Friday night.
 
The Patriots as a team hit .222 with 62 total kills in the marathon thriller. Kota Hartman and Autumn Perry combined for 49 kills of the 62 for the Patriots in a massive night while Saige Rivera dished out 52 assists.
 
The Patriots in the opening set battled back and forth to begin with the #13 Rambelles, with the teams fighting to a 7-7 draw. The Patriots got a pair of big kills from Audrey Brandon as they took a two point lead, but the Rambelles would battle back and take a two point lead of their own at 14-12.
UT Tyler showed some resilience, ripping off five straight points as Kota Hartman and Faith Wilkins put together a kill each while Kaitlyn Davis added a key ace for a three point lead. Down the stretch, the Patriots continued to come up with key point after to key point as Autumn Perry added two kills and a block with Brandon as the Patriots lead would extend to six. The set would end with another Patriots flurry as Brandon and Jackie Velzis each recorded a kill and an error from the Rambelles gave the Patriots the 25-17 win.
 
The Patriots used a key 6-1 scoring run in the opening minutes of the second set to run out to an 8-3 lead. In the stretch, Hartman totaled three kills while Velzis and Wilkins added another and Bella Briceno clocked in an ace from the service line.
 
The teams would trade points over the next six, but the Patriots again opened up a big run as Perry and Brandon each recorded kills and Emma Vazquez picked up two straight aces for a 14-7 lead. They would follow that up with another three point run that grew to 5-2 as they ran their lead to 19-11 as Velzis and Rivera picked up kills and Briceno added another ace.
 
The Rambelles would continue to battle, working their way back point by point and eventually using a key 6-1 run to pull level at 21-21 in the closing stages of the set. The Patriots answered with a Hartman kill and took advantage of a pair of errors, but the Rambelles got a key block and an ace to make it 24-24. The teams would go back and forth, but the Patriots ultimately pulled out the set as Brandon collected a huge block and then the Rambelles had an attack error to give the Patriots a 28-26 set win.
 
In the third and fourth sets, the Rambelles would catch fire, hitting .355 and .286 while holding the Patriots to a sluggish .038 and .158 in the same sets as the Rambelles cruised to 25-14 and 25-15 set wins. That would set up a battle in the fifth set sprint to 15.
 
In that fifth set, the Patriots ripped off three straight points early thanks to a pair of Rambelle errors and a Velzis kill. The Rambelles answered with a 5-1 run to take an 8-6 lead, but the Patriots again had the answers with a pair of Perry kills.
 
Down the stretch, the two teams traded blows with neither side gaining more than a point edge. The final blow would come from the hands of none other than Perry, who connected on a pair of kills to score the final two points and earn the big upset win at 16-14.
 
For the game, Kota Hartman lead both teams with 22 kills on a .254 percentage. Perry was right behind with 17 of her own, and both Velzis and Brandon added 7 each.
 
Saige Rivera added 52 assists and a trio of kills to her tally, while Anna Arceneaux and Bella Briceno combined for 35 total digs on the back row.
 
UT Tyler will head into LSC play one week from today as they host Cameron inside the Herrington Patriot Center to kick off the conference slate on Friday night at 6 p.m.