MARSHALL, Texas – LeTourneau University's volleyball team swept rival East Texas Baptist in two American Southwest Conference matches Tuesday. The YellowJackets outlasted the No. 12 Tigers in the first match, 25-22, 25-22, 19-25, 18-25, 15-10. They won the second match, 25-27, 25-21, 25-22, 25-11.
 
LeTourneau improved to 9-2 overall, 6-2 in the ASC. East Texas Baptist fell to 5-4, 4-4.
 
It was the first five-set match of the season for the Jackets, who hit .129 in the opener and .161 in the second. The Tigers hit .107 in the first match and .059 in the second.
 
Natalie Connelly and Kianna Crow had 10 kills in the first match. Connelly had four blocks, including a solo. Crow had a season-high 22 digs and two aces. Skylar Fowler had six kills, two blocks and nine digs. Natalie Davenport had 25 assists, four kills and nine digs. Courtney Edge had 15 digs and an ace. Kylie Cobb had six kills, three blocks, including a solo, and eight digs. Samantha Winkel had 12 assists. Allison Smith had four kills and four blocks.
 
In the second match, Crow had 10 kills, three aces and 12 digs. Madison Denega had nine kills, 14 digs and a block. Connelly had seven kills, two blocks and two aces. Edge had a season-high 31 digs. Smith had seven kills, four blocks, including a solo, and hit .375. Avery Mabery had six kills, a block and a .308 attack percentage. Fowler had five kills, two blocks and a .333 hitting percentage. Davenport had 19 assists and nine digs. Winkel had 15 assists and two aces.
 
In the fifth set of the opener, LeTourneau took a 10-6 lead when Connelly blocked Annie Harris. ETBU pulled within 10-9, following three straight kills by Hope Shipp. The Jackets won the next three points to make it 13-9. After the Tigers won the next point, LETU benefitted from back-to-back ETBU errors to close the match.
 
Both teams had nine blocks. ETBU had eight aces, while LETU had four. The Jackets had 80 digs, and the Tigers 71.
 
In the second match, LeTourneau went on a 6-1 run in the fourth set to grab an 18-13 lead. After Kayla Rainey's kill pulled the Tigers within three, the YellowJackets used a kill by Connelly, ace by Crow and kill by Mabery to jump ahead, 21-15. East Texas Baptist pulled within three again on Bailey O'Bannon's kill. Following a kill by Denega, ETBU had three straight points to close the gap to 23-22. Denega pounded a kill, and Connelly and Crow combined on a block to win the set to take a 2-1 lead in the match.
 
LeTourneau hit .255 in the third set, putting down 15 kills. East Texas Baptist hit .133 with 12 kills.
 
The YellowJackets raced out to a 10-5 lead in the final set when Mabery and Smith combined on a block. A kill by Fowler and two ETBU errors extended the lead to 17-8. Smith put down a ball from Winkel to make it 20-9. Mabery and Smith had kills, and a Tigers setting error pushed it to 23-10. Following an LETU error, the Jackets wrapped it up on an ETBU error and putaway by Denega.
 
LETU outblocked ETBU, 6-2, in the second match. The Jackets had eight aces to the Tigers' four.
 
LeTourneau will play at Louisiana College in a pair of matches beginning at 1 p.m. Saturday.