SAN ANTONIO — It was as close as a match could get inside Bill Greehey Arena on Friday night, as the St. Mary's University Volleyball team snapped a seven-match winning streak with a heartbreaking five-set loss to UT Tyler in a battle of the unbeatens 24-26, 23-25, 28-26, 25-19, 9-15.
The Rattlers move to 12-4 on the year and 4-1 in Lone Star Conference play, while the Patriots improve to 8-5 overall and 5-0 in league action and are one of two unbeaten teams remaining in the league (West Texas A&M). St. Mary's moves into a three-way tie for third place with Angelo State and Saturday's opponent, DBU.
UT Tyler used a 6-1 run late in the first set to pull out the 26-24 win and led the entire second set, though the Rattlers fought back from a 17-11 deficit to close within one at 24-23 before the Patriots won the final point to take a 2-0 lead.
After the break, the Patriots jumped out to a 5-1 lead and were thinking sweep, but the Rattlers foiled the plans, clawing back to knot things at 10-10 and they won the set on an ace serve by senior setter
Cali Nims (Corpus Christi, Texas).
The Rattlers led wire-to-wire in the fourth set, scoring the final three points for the six-point win, 25-19. The fifth set was tied at 1-1 and 2-2, but the Patriots managed to pull away with two four-point runs, winning 15-9.
Senior opposite-side hitter
Alicia Virthe (Orlando, Fla.) led the Rattlers with 17 kills, and she only had two errors on 41 swings for a .366 hitting percentage. Junior middle blocker
Dallasstar Johnson (San Antonio) added 14 kills and a match-high six blocks.
Nims was three kills shy of her first triple-double, recording seven kills with 45 assists and 13 digs. She also tied her career-high with four blocks as the Rattlers out-blocked the Patriots 12-to-4. Sophomore
Olivia Rubio (San Antonio) was one off her career-high in blocks, chipping in five for the Gold and Blue.
Junior libero
Alyssa Koehl (New Braunfels, Texas) and UTT libero Addison Evans tied for match-high honors with 28 digs. Both graduated from Canyon HS in New Braunfels. Senior defensive specialist
Leah Cruz (Laredo, Texas) tied her season-high with 13 digs and played in the front row for the final two points of the fourth set.
Freshman outside hitter
Taylor Alston (San Antonio) recorded a career-best six kills, topping her total of four from at Sul Ross State. She also chipped in a block assist and a dig in her three sets of work.
The Rattlers don't get much time to rest as DBU comes to town for a 2 p.m. match on Saturday. The Patriots swept St. Edward's on Friday night and are 4-1 in conference play, with the lone loss coming in five sets to UT Tyler last week.
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