Volleyball Pushes UTT to Very End in LSC Quarterfinals

CANYON, Texas — When UT Tyler and St. Mary's University take to the Volleyball court, everyone knows it's going to be a battle until the last point, and Thursday afternoon in the Lone Star Quarterfinals was no different. Third-seeded UT Tyler pulled off the victory over the sixth-seeded Rattlers, winning in five, 16-25, 25-27, 25-10, 12-15.
 
It is the third straight time the two teams have played the full five sets in the five times the clubs have faced each other.
 
Junior Landri Withers (Stephenville, Texas) led the match with a career-best 23 kills, making only four errors on the day for a fantastic .333 hitting percentage (23-4-57). She also grabbed 10 digs for her 14th double-double of the year. After the conclusion of the LSC Tournament, Withers was named to the All-Tournament team for her efforts.
 
A trio of other Rattlers also recorded double figures in kills with senior Alicia Virthe (Orlando, Fla.) recording 13 and senior Brianna Morris-Worth (Yukon, Okla.) and freshman Taylor Alston (San Antonio) adding 10 each. Morris-Worth also added a career-high six blocks, tying for match-high honors.
 
Junior libero Alyssa Koehl (New Braunfels, Texas) won the battle of the Canyon High School graduates, leading the match with 28 digs. UTT libero Addison Evans, who graduated the year ahead of Koehl, led the Patriots with 20. Senior defensive specialist Leah Cruz (Laredo, Texas) tied for match-high honors with three aces, stretching her streak to five straight matches with at least one ace, and giving her three or more aces four times this year.
 
Senior Cali Nims (Corpus Christi, Texas) recorded 48 assists, six digs, three kills and two blocks in the final match of her stellar career. She also distributed the ball extremely well, as the Rattlers hit .254 on the day.
 
St. Mary's scored the first three points of the match, but the Patriots scored the next three for the first tie. UTT took its first lead at 5-4 and never trailed again, not committing a hitting error in the set (12-0-24). Both Morris-Worth and Withers recorded five kills in the opening set.
 
The two teams went back-and-forth throughout the second set with 10 ties. The Rattlers moved Morris-Worth to the middle and Alston came in on the left, where she posted five kills. StMU trailed by four, 15-11 when Alston got a kill and Cruz served five straight points, including back-to-back aces to give the Rattlers an 18-15 advantage. The Patriots fought back to tie the score at 21-21 and it was tied at every point until the 27-25 final.
 
Set three was all Rattlers as they hit .407 with only one error (12-1-27), while holding the Patriots negative (8-10-33). StMU recorded four blocks in the set and got hands on several other attempts to disrupt UTT. Virthe had a pair of long-serving runs in the set, serving 11 total points.
 
The fourth set was once again a back-and-forth set, seeing 12 ties, including the final one at 20-20. The Rattlers scored five of the final seven points with two kills by Virthe, a kill by Withers, and a kill and a combo block each by Madi Milligan (San Antonio) and Alston.
 
The Patriots looked to run away with the fifth set, jumping out to an 8-2 advantage, but the never-say-die Rattlers dug in. Down 12-5, they scored eight of nine to pull within one, 13-12, with two huge blocks by Virthe and Olivia Rubio (San Antonio) during the run. However, the Patriots were able to score the final two to advance to the LSC semifinals.
 
The match concludes the career of four seniors in Cruz, Morris-Worth, Nims, and Virthe. All four have contributed an immeasurable amount to the Rattlers program over their time in the Gold and Blue.