TYLER, Texas (November 1, 2024) – Playing against a team tied for second place in the Lone Star Conference standings, the University of Texas Permian Basin volleyball team fell 3-0 (25-10, 26-24, 25-19) at The University of Texas at Tyler on Friday night.

It is an important two days for UTPB (12-8 overall, 5-6 LSC), which entered the weekend tied for eighth place in the Lone Star Conference Standings and began a pair of matches on back-to-back days against teams ranked in the top-five in the conference.

With just one conference loss so far this season, UT Tyler (13-6, 10-1) exploded with a 23-8 lead after a 9-0 run and won the first set by a score of 25-10. UTPB hit -.056 percent in the opening set.

Looking to even the match up, UTPB bounced back with four blocks in the second set, and led by as many as six points on two different occasions at the 19-13 and 20-14 marks.

Up 21-18 after a kill by Kennedi Wright, the play was challenged by UTT Head Coach Lyndsay Mashe, who thought her team had come up with a dig on the play to keep the ball alive.

Although the challenge was unsuccessful, the play gave the Patriots the momentum they needed to win the next three points, bookended by kills from Kota Hartman, and cut their deficit to one (22-21).

Another kill by Wright made it 23-21 Falcons, and then tied at 23-23, a service error by UTT gave set point to UTPB.

Unfortunately, UTPB could not finish it off as another kill by Hartman to tie it was followed by a big block by Dakota Rogers-Hurtado to give UTT a 25-24 lead. It was one of three solo blocks by Rogers-Hurtado, who ranks third in UTT history with 79 solo blocks for her career.

A kill by Jackie Velzis on the next point allowed the Patriots to steal the set and deliver a gut punch.

Tied at 13-13 in the third set, back-to-back kills by Hartman gave the Patriots the first two-point lead of the set for either team. Hartman would finish with a match-high 17 kills. She has averaged the most kills per set in league matches (4.46) across the conference and has reached double-digit kill totals in all but one match this season. She now ranks third in the LSC with an average of 3.85 kills per set and has totaled 281 kills on the year.

Then tied at 16-16, the Falcons committed a service error and hit it too deep on an attack error.

UTT took a three-point lead for the first time in the set at 21-18, and followed that up with a block to make it 22-18.

UTT would finish the final set on a 6-1 run.

UTPB hit .306 percent in the third set, but UTT was even better at .455 percent and finished at .353 percent for the match, the highest hitting percentage allowed by the Falcons this season. The Patriots as a whole committed just 10 errors on the evening, matching their lowest total on the season.

The Falcons were led statistically by Wright with 11 kills on .333 percent hitting while Jenna Gray had 21 assists and Gloria Geurin had nine digs.

Chyra Thompson tied her career-high with four solo blocks.

Cassandra Rother added seven kills and hit .400 percent while Logan Terrazas had at least four kills while hitting over .300 percent for the third match in a row.

"We put out a respectable performance for 80 percent of the match," said Coach CJ Allard. "But, with our start tonight and UT Tyler's prowess, we would have needed a miracle akin to turning water into wine to overcome a team that's been in three consecutive NCAA Tournaments and is well on its way to a fourth. We're certainly good enough to not shoot ourselves in the foot out of the gate like we did tonight. Another amazing opportunity awaits us tomorrow in Dallas."

The Falcons continue their road trip tomorrow (Nov. 2) with a 2 p.m. first serve against No. 25-ranked Dallas Baptist University.