LONGVIEW, Texas - Looking for their first American Southwest Conference win of the year, the LeTourneau University volleyball team would stand tall before falling to the No. 16 nationally-ranked Unviversity of Texas-Dallas in three sets at Solheim Arena in Longview, Texas on Thursday, September 21st.
LETU falls to 4-8 overall and 0-2 in ASC play while the Comets improved to 9-3 overall and 3-1 in conference.
a closely contested first set would see neither team be able to build a lead bigger than five points as UTD managed to jump out to an early lead before seeing the YellowJackets tie the match at 16-16 and 17-17. LETU would gain the lead at 18-17, before the Comets would force another tie at 20-20. Texas-Dallas eventually would pull away and win the set 26-24, thanks in part to five kills by Sydney Riordan in the set despite LeTourneau having one of their best opening sets of the year.
In set two, UTD would make a run after the YellowJackets would tie the match at 10-10, reeling off 11 of the next 12 points to take a commanding 21-11 lead and never look back, forcing LETU into a -0.71 attack percentage in the set while hitting .185 to take the set by a score of 25-14.
The third set would closely resemble the first set with neither team able to maintain a comfortable lead. After trailing by a score of 15-8, LETU found a way to slowly eat away at the Comet lead and score eight straight points while forcing two Texas-Dallas timeouts. The timeouts would be exactly what UTD would need, scoring the last five points of the match to sweep the YellowJackets and end any hopes of a comeback.
"I'm extremely proud of the process that we are going through" said head coach
Ashley Tiernan in a post-game interview. "We are learning how to battle and leaders are finally stepping into their roles." "We're learning how to keep our composure, and use that to our advantage."
An 8-4 advantage in blocks while holding a .189-.100 advantage in attack percentage would pace the Comets in the match while forcing 20 LeTourneau attack errors.
Hailey Matthews led all players with 11 kills while adding eight digs while
Elyse Wright had seven kills. Libero
Liz Williams would lead the YellowJackets with 12 digs followed by
Korissa White and
Cam Taylor with 11 each.
The American Southwest Conference volleyball crossover tournament will take place Friday and Saturday at LeTourneau University with all 12 ASC teams in action for three games each. LETU will play McMurry at 12:30 p.m. tomorrow afternoon before taking on Mary Hardin-Baylor at 8 p.m.
