UT Tyler’s Saige Rivera (5-10 sophomore, Temecula, Calif.)

After back-to-back postseason appearances, the UT Tyler Patriots are expected have another outstanding volleyball season.

The Patriots have been picked second in the 2023 Lone Star Conference Preseason Volleyball Poll, it was announced by the conference office in Richardson on Wednesday.

The Patriots received 644 total points runner-up in the Lone Star Conference behind defending NCAA Division II National Champions West Texas A&M. The Lady Buffs earned 42 of the 45 possible first-place votes to compile 762 total points as the preseason favorites.

UT Tyler has made back-to-back NCAA Division II National Tournament appearances in each of the first two seasons of NCAA Division II postseason eligibility. The Patriots were 20-10 overall in 2022 and put together a mark of 12-4 in LSC play to finish fourth in the league standings.

The Patriots were 54 points ahead of No. 3 Texas A&M-Kingsville. DBU (564) and Angelo State (519) rounded out the top five behind UT Tyler and Texas A&M-Kingsville.

In addition to the poll, three individuals were selected for preseason player awards. West Texas A&M garnered both Offensive and Defensive Preseason Player of the Year Awards with Torrey Miller (Outside Hitter, Sr., Physical Therapy major, Brownwood) as the offensive choice and Taytum Stow (Middle blocker, So., Graphic Design major, Hereford) as the defensive choice, while Texas A&M International’s Emma Lade (So., Biology major, Howard Lake, Minnesota) was the Preseason Setter of the Year.

It will be in-large part a new era of Patriot volleyball in 2023, as a senior class that navigated the last three seasons of play in the Lone Star Conference with a record of 39-6 and an overall record of 54-15 will no longer be featured inside the Herrington Patriot Center. A returning core of talented, yet inexperienced Patriots, will be asked to take over the reigns this fall for a program that has quickly established itself as a perennial contender in one of Division II’s best volleyball conferences.

Head coach Lyndsay Mashe will have the services of a handful of contributors from the last few seasons back in 2023, including three Patriots that were included on the 2023 Lone Star Conference Players to Watch list in Dakota Rogers-Hurtado (MB, Jr., Kinesiology major, McKinney), Adeline Ortman (Setter, Jr., Business Administration major, Rhome) and Maiya Peña (MB, graduate student, Kinesiology major, Houston).

Peña was an All-LSC second team selection in 2022 and an honorable mentionpick in 2021, while Rogers-Hurtado and Ortman were both honorable mention last fall.

That trio along with a new crop of talent will step on the court for the first team in the friendly confines of the Herrington Patriot Center at the 2023 Patriot Classic on Sept. 1-2 in four matches against the University of Montevallo (1:30 p.m., Friday, Sept. 1), Southern Nazarene (6:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 1), Fort Lewis (12:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 2) and Union (5:30 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 2).

Rank Team Points

1 West Texas A&M (42) 762

2 UT Tyler 644

3 Texas A&M-Kingsville 590

4 DBU (2) 564

5 Angelo State 519

6 St. Mary’s 494

7 Texas A&M International 493

8 UAFS 468

9 Texas Woman’s 395

10 Lubbock Christian 382

11 Oklahoma Christian 291

12 St. Edward’s 276

13 UT Permian Basin (1) 264

14 Eastern New Mexico 221

15 Midwestern State 183

16 Western New Mexico 88

17 Cameron 71