TYLER – The No. 16 Texas A&M University-Commerce volleyball team showed fight in Wednesday's match before falling to UT Tyler, 3-1, in the Louise Herrington Patriot Center.
 
Set scores were 16-25, 23-25, 25-21, 10-25. A&M-Commerce falls to 2-2 overall and in the Lone Star Conference, while UT Tyler is now 6-0 on the season.
 
The Lions return to the Field House for their next action, hosting Texas Woman's on Tuesday, February 16, and Wednesday, February 17. The Lions' next four matches are against the TWU Pioneers.
 
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- Sydney Andersen (Placentia, Calif.) led the Lions with 12 kills and was one of three A&M-Commerce players with double digit kills.
- Taryn Cast (Peaster) and Maiya Dickie (Huntsville) each had 10 kills, with Dickie hitting .421.
- Celeste Vela (Guadalajara, Mexico) had a double-double with 42 assists and 10 kills, while Riley Davidson (Commerce) led the Lions with 17 digs.
- UT Tyler hit .289 in the match with 57 kills compared to A&M-Commerce's .143 with 44 kills.
 
HEAD COACH CRAIG CASE AFTER THE MATCH
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
The first set saw the Patriots jump out to an early 8-1 lead before the Lions scraped their way back into the set. A 6-1 run by A&M-Commerce including a pair of Vela aces narrowed the margin to four points at 17-13. UT Tyler closed the set out with four straight points for the 25-16 set victory. The Lions hit .156 in the set, while the Patriots were successful on .519 of their swings.

The Lions were the aggressors early in the second set, as Andersen had four kills and A&M-Commerce had two blocks in jumping out to a 9-4 lead. A&M-Commerce was the first team to 20 when Andersen's kill made it a 20-16 Lion lead, but UT Tyler caught fire late in the frame. The Patriots scored seven of the final eight points in the set, taking a two-set lead with the 25-23 victory. UTT hit .195 in the frame, while A&M-Commerce hit .146.
 
The third set was tightly fought and was still tied as late as 18-all. From there, the Lions went on a four-point run including a Davidson kill to go up 22-18. The Lions held off the Patriots to take the set and extend the match. The Lions had a .229 hitting percentage with only two errors in the set.
 
UT Tyler was able to swing the match back in its favor in a fourth set surge. The Patriots closed the match out an eight-point run while holding the Lions to a .031 hitting percentage in the final frame.