By BROCK BEARDEN/Contributor
UT Tyler volleyball earned a hard-fought 3-2 victory over #23 Dallas Baptist Oct. 5. The win kept the Patriots unbeaten in Lone Star Conference play and extended their undefeated home record.
The Patriots won the first and third sets 25-22 and dropped the second set and fourth sets 23-25 and 22-25. They won the fifth tie-breaking set 18-16.
“We fought! Our team executed when it mattered most to win the game,” head coach Lyndsay Mashe said. “Our defense and passing were key to get our offense playing at a high level.”
UT Tyler totaled 77 kills, its most in the Division II era. Junior Kota Hartman led the team with 24 kills.
“Kota is very competitive and wants to win,” Mashe said. “She demands the ball from the setter and wants to score. Kota has a very heavy arm which makes it hard to defend.”
Junior Saige Rivera set a program record with 67 assists, winning Lone Star Conference setter of the week honors.
“Being named setter of the week is a huge honor and super exciting,” Rivera said. “It’s not only a reflection of myself, but the entire team because I would not have been able to achieve it without every single person on the court. Our passers were on point and the hitters stayed aggressive to find open spots on the court.”
Mashe said Rivera is playing at a high level.
“Saige is doing a great job of running a balanced offense and getting all her hitters involved and in position to score,” Mashe said. “She runs a fast tempo, which makes it hard forthe other team’s defense to keep up.”
BACK-AND-FORTH ACTION
Every set was tightly contested, with both teams battling until the final points. The first set ended 25-22 after a 5-2 UT Tyler run while Dallas Baptist took the second set with a similar 5-2 stretch.
“We really just stayed the course of the game,” freshman Drew Bridges said. “We tried to control the pace of the game instead of letting DBU take over. Every timeout, we have cards that say things like ‘finish,’ ‘play free,’ and ‘battle,’ so those give us a good mindset to have.”
The third set saw UT Tyler notch 20 kills, closing it out 25-22 with four kills from Hartman.
“To keep the offense running smoothly, I focused on spreading the ball around to allow each hitter an opportunity to score and to trick the blockers on the other side,” Rivera said. “Our defense made that super easy since they passed so many balls right on the money, and I was able to use all front-row options.”
Dallas Baptist fought back in the fourth, forcing a fifth and final set with a 4-1 run.
“When we drop a set, we always talk about what mistakes we made and what we need to do to fix them,” Bridges said. “In the fifth set, we just had that winning mentality and we wanted it so much more than them. Our bench was super loud and the atmosphere on the court was really competitive.”
RESILIENCE PAYS OFF
In the deciding set, UT Tyler survived three match points before using three consecutive kills to claim the 18-16 victory. Senior Dakota Rogers-Hurtado and junior Makhai Lewis delivered those final points.
“We were able to pull away in the fifth set by having a now-or-never mindset,” Rivera said. “We stayed calm under pressure, trusted each other, and let the other team make mistakes. The energy from our sidelines and the home crowd was huge and drove us to finish the game.”
The Patriots score a set-winning point against Dallas Baptist at the HPC on Oct. 5. Video by BROCK BEARDEN.
