A chiral constituent quark model approach, embodying s- and u-channel exchanges,complemented with a Reggeized treatment for t-channel is presented. A model is obtained allowing data for $pi^- p to eta n$ and $gamma p to eta p$ to be describe satisfactorily. For the latter reaction, recently released data by CLAS and CBELSA/TAPS Collaborations in the system total energy range $1.6 lesssim W lesssim 2.8$ GeV are well reproduced due to the inclusion of Reggeized trajectories instead of simple $rho$ and $omega$ poles. Contribution from missing resonances is found to be negligible in the considered processes.