ABILENE, Texas - A hot hitting Concordia University Texas team would hit .406 in the first set and be too much to handle for the LeTourneau University volleyball team in a 25-12, 18-25, 14-25 three set defeat at Kimbrell Arena in Abilene, Texas on Saturday, October 14th. 

With the loss, the YellowJackets finish the second American Southwest Conference Crossover Tournament with a 1-2 record to fall to 7-17 overall and 2-10 in the ASC. 

LETU would keep the pace with the Tornadoes early on in the first set as the two teams would trade the first 10 points of the match among five ties with the final tie coming at 5-5. Six consecutive points by CTX would allow the Tornadoes to open up an 11-5 lead as part of a 14-4 run that pushed the lead to 18-9. Concordia would then close out the set by scoring five of the final six points and take the first set of the match. 

Things would not be so one-sided in the second set as LeTourneau would battle back from an early hole to pull within two at 11-9 following a kill by sophomore Julie Smith. A kill by Elyse Wright later in the set would pull the YellowJackets back within two at 17-15 before four consecutive points by CTX pushed the Tornado lead back out to 21-15. The six point deficit would be too big for LETU to overcome so late in the set as Concordia would manage to come away with a 25-18 set victory. 

The third set would see the Concordia offense pick back and mimmick a hot-hitting first set after the YellowJackets scored the first two points of the set. LETU would push their set lead to 5-2 and take their final lead of the match at 7-6 on a kill by Hailey Matthews before yet another Concordia run allowed the Tornadoes to take an 11-7 lead. Wright would get LeTourneau back within a point with a kill to make the score 12-11 in favor of CTX, but the offense of Concordia would be too much as the final seven points of the match went in favor of the Tornadoes to close out the match. 

Concordia would manage to finish with a .277 attack percentage while holding LeTourneau to a -0.10 attack percentage which included 22 attack errors by the YellowJackets. Only two service aces by LETU would complicate matters as each team would finish with five blocks. 

Matthews (nine) and Wright (seven) led the YellowJackets in kills while Cam Taylor had a team-high eight assists. Savanna Stutts would lead the team with three blocks. 

Tuesday night will LeTourneau's final home match of the 2017 campaign when the YellowJackets play host to East Texas Baptist University at 7 p.m. The game will serve as Dig Pink night to help raise awareness with October being Breast Cancer Awareness month.