LONGVIEW, Texas -- In what could be the final meeting with Sul Ross in volleyball for the foreseeable future, the LeTourneau volleyball team defended outlasted the visiting Lobos in the first two sets and ran away in the third for a 3-0 (25-22, 25-18, 25-12) victory on Friday in Solheim Arena.

LeTourneau (8-11) picked up its third sweep of the season in the non-conference win over Sul Ross (7-12).

Yari Ortiz had a team-high 10 kills and Allison Smith totaled eight kills and three blocks, while hitting .667 in the match. Reina Lawson added 30 assists and three aces to go with six digs. Morgan Nix had a match-high 18 digs. LeTourneau tallied 37 kills and hit .258 in the contest as Kaci Monk and Hannah Payan had six and five kills, respectively.

LeTourneau limited Sul Ross to a .092 hitting percentage and tallied five blocks.

The first two sets saw a combined 19 ties and five lead changes, but LeTourneau came out on top in both. The YellowJackets trailed 20-18 in the first set before using a 7-2 run to take the frame. Smith had two kills and two blocks during the run and Ortiz had the set-clinching kill to cap the stretch.

In the second set, LeTourneau used a 6-0 run to break a 14-14 tie. Ortiz had two kills in the streak with Lawson and Nora Lockhart adding one each. The YellowJackets took the final three points of the set with back-to-back Lobo errors after a Payan kill to give the hosts a 2-0 match lead.

It was tight early in the third before LeTourneau pulled away. A rare Nix kill gave the YellowJackets a 7-3 lead and Sul Ross was hit with a red card as they disputed the call. The momentum swung completely on the YellowJackets' side after that as LeTourneau scored nine unanswered points, including two aces from Lawson, to grab a commanding 18-5 lead.

The YellowJackets coasted from there to complete the sweep.

Sul Ross got 10 kills from Cassandra Espinoza and 16 assists from Eliana Mata in the loss.

UP NEXT

LeTourneau hosts Howard Payne for Senior Day on Saturday (1 p.m.).

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