SHREVEPORT, La. Playing a pair of schools that that they have already seen this season, the LeTourneau University volleyball team dropped a three set match to Austin College before falling in five sets to host Centenary College at the Centenary College Halloween Tournament at the Gold Dome in Shreveport, LA on Saturday, October 28th. 

Under first year head coach Ashley Tiernan, the YellowJackets conclude their 2017 campaign with an overall record of 10-22, a one win improvement over the 2016 record of 9-24. 

The first match against Austin College saw LETU take an early 4-1 lead before the Roos came storming back to tie the match at 6-6. A 10-1 AC run would allow for the Roos to double up LeTourneau at 14-7 before the YellowJackets managed to fight back within four points at 17-13. Another run by Austin College would see the set end on a 9-2 run as Austin College took the set by a score of 25-15. 

A closer second set saw things stay close early on before Austin College would open up a lead midway through the set. Trailing by a score of 17-10, LETU would use a 5-1 run to cut the lead to 21-15 in favor of AC and to within four at 24-20 after fighting off two set points, but the Roos would come away with a 25-20 set victory. 

Trailing two sets to zero, LETU managed to take an early lead and manage to hold onto it for a majority of the set, leading by as many as five at 11-6. Four straight points by Austin College closed the match to 21-18 in favor of LeTourneau before the match became tied at 23-23 on a service ace by Katie Ingle. AC would score the final two points of the match as part of a 5-0 run that closed out the match with the set going to Austin College 25-23. 

The YellowJackets would be led by senior Elyse Wright in the match with eight kills while Torie Langston had two service aces. Korissa White dished out 16 set assists while Audrey Galindo had 16 digs. 

The final match of the day against Centenary would get off to a very rough start for LeTourneau as the Ladies managed to take the first set by a score of 25-9. Centenary would score 12 of the final 13 points of the set while limiting LeTourneau to just five kills in the set. 

Another bad start in the second set saw the host Ladies score the first four points of the set and manage to hold their lead throughout as LETU could never fully recover from an early deficit. A timeout by the YellowJackets trailing 17-13 would provide a much needed spark for LeTourneau as part of a 4-0 run that would tie the match at 17-17, but that would be as close as LETU would get as the score would quickly go to 23-19 in favor of Centenary before a final score of 25-22 going to the Ladies. 

Things would finally start to break in favor of LeTourneau in the third set as the YellowJackets would open up a 10-5 lead over Centenary early on before seeing the Ladies battle back to tie the match at 13-13. Centenary would continue their run to take a 17-14 lead before three of the next four points broke in LeTourneau's favor to close back within a point at 18-17. Seven of the final eight points would be scored by LeTourneau as part of their first set win of the day by a score of 25-22. 

The YellowJackets would once again take an early set lead by building a 10-4 lead in the fourth set and keeping their foot on the pedal as Centenary would see their only lead of the set come at 2-1. Following a 4-0 run to open up the six point lead for the YellowJackets, LeTourneau would not let the Ladies get any closer than three at 18-15 before pulling away for a 25-16 set win with White at the service line for the final five points of the set. 

A winner-take-all fifth set saw LETU use a 5-0 run to open up a 7-3 lead over Centenary force a timeout by the Ladies with the score 9-4 in favor of the YellowJackets. The timeout managed to flip the momentum back over to Centenary as four of the next six points would be scored by the Ladies to cut the gap to 11-8 and force a LeTourneau timeout. Centenary would continue their run following the LETU timeout, managing to tie the match at 12-12 and force a second LeTourneau timeout as the Ladies managed to win the match by scoring the final three points of the set. 

An abundance of service aces would be seen in the match, with Centenary recoring a game-high 10 compared to nine for LETU. The YellowJackets would hold a 6-5 lead in blocks while forcing 27 Centenary attack errors. 

Freshman Hailey Matthews would record a double double in the match with 11 kills and 12 digs while Stutts had five kills and three blocks. A game-high 19 digs and three service aces would be recorded by junior Liz Williams while White added 24 set assists to close out her LeTourneau career with 1,271 set assists (fourth-most in school history).