ABILENE, Texas - Bouncing back from a three set loss at Texas-Tyler on Wednesday night, the LeTourneau University volleyball team picked up a three set victory over Sul Ross State University to kick off the American Southwest Conference crossover tournament at Hardin-Simmons University on Friday, October 13th. 

LETU is now 7-15 overall and 2-8 in the American Southwest conference while the Lobos fall to 2-21 overall and 0-12 in the ASC. 

A closely contested start to the first set would find the teams trading points to begin the set as the score would be tied at 5-5 on a kill by freshman Hailey Matthews. After tying the set again at 6-6, the YellowJackets would open up three point lead at 12-9 before building their lead up to a seven-point advantage at 18-11. Holding onto their lead, LeTourneau would be able to trade withstand any potential comeback from Sul Ross in the set to come away with a 25-21 set victory while forcing the Lobos into a -0.71 attack percentage. 

LETU's offense would start to pick up in the second set as the YellowJackets would find themselves in an early 6-3 hole. LeTourneau would battle back with three straight points to tie the match at six which would be followed by four additional ties to put the game at 13-13. Neither team would be able to pull away SRSU would have an answer for every LeTourneau point, eventually claiming a 19-17 lead. Trailing by two, the YellowJackets would turn the corner by scoring three straight points to reclaim a 20-19 lead before going on to score the final four points of the match and come away with a 25-21 set victory. 

LeTourneau's best offensive output of the match would come in the third set as LETU would trail only twice in the set. After jumping out to an early 6-3 lead, Sul Ross would manage to tie the match at 9-9 and take the lead at 10-9 on a service ace before a service error tied the match back up at 10-10. With the score tied at 11, LETU would score three straight points and manage to take six of the next seven points to open up a 16-12 lead before eventually pushing their lead to 20-14. Sul Ross would make one final push at the YellowJackets by pulling within a point at 21-20, but LETU would pull away down the stretch to close out the match with their third consecutive set win of 25-21. 

Matthews would lead all players with 12 kills while seniors Savanna Stutts and Elyse Wright each had seven. Mikayla Thomas recorded a season-high five blocks while Cam Taylor had a game-high 20 assists. Liz Williams led the YellowJackets with 27 digs. 

LeTourneau returns to the court tonight at 5:30 p.m. when they will take on host school Hardin-Simmons University.