MARSHALL, Texas -- The LeTourneau volleyball team battled in two matches on Saturday, but fell to McMurry in five sets before being swept by No. 12-ranked East Texas Baptist on the final day of the ETBU Tiger Invitational inside Ornelas Gym.
LeTourneau (3-8) fell to McMurry in a five-set match (20-25, 25-20, 28-26, 24-26, 15-13) early in the day. In the finale, the YellowJackets had leads in both the first and second sets against nationally-ranked ETBU before falling in three sets (25-19, 25-19, 25-12).
MATCH ONE: McMurry 3, LeTourneau 2
LeTourneau took the first set before trailing in the match and forcing a fifth set, but McMurry held on in the deciding frame for a 3-2 (20-25, 25-20, 28-26, 24-26, 15-13) victory.
Elizabeth Corbitt notched 18 kills in the match for a third time this season, while
Hailee Perry had a double-double of 23 assists and 14 digs. Corbitt hit .302 in the loss and also tallied six digs.
Emily Mullin had 19 assists with 10 digs and
Rebekah Dragoo had 32 digs.
Kassidy Meyer and
Kylee Marksberry totaled seven kills each.
LeTourneau took command with a 25-20 win in the opener as the YellowJackets broke a 16-16 tie with a kill from
Claire Bezanilla and outscored the War Hawks 9-4 over the final 13 points.
McMurry (3-5) bounced back and took the next two frames. After taking set two, 25-20, McMurry grabbed a 2-1 match lead with a 28-26 win in the third. LeTourneau had one set point chance in the game and later tied the score at 26 after a Corbitt kill before McMurry scored the final two points on kills from Kenzie Jackson and Layleah Williams-Gibson.
LeTourneau turned the tables on McMurry in the fourth with an extra-point win, 26-24, to send the match into the fifth. The YellowJackets trailed 23-21, but a pair of errors from McMurry and a combination block from
Sia Caballero and
Nora Lockhart gave LeTourneau a 24-23 lead. Two more War Hak errors gave LeTourneau the set.
In the fifth, LeTourneau trailed 14-10 before getting three straight with kills from Marksberry and Corbitt before a block from
Ashlyn Walther and Meyer got the YellowJackets within 14-13. After a timeout, McMurry went back to Williams-Gibson who recorded the match-clinching kill.
Williams-Gibson had 18 kills and Jackson added 12 kills for McMurry. Grace Fortune added 52 assists and Jalie Miller 28 digs.
MATCH TWO: East Texas Baptist 3, LeTourneau 0
LeTourneau held late leads in both the first and second sets, but No. 12-ranked East Texas Baptist was too much as the YellowJackets fell in three sets (25-19, 25-19, 25-12).
Marksberry had six kills to lead LeTourneau, while Dragoo had 14 digs and Mullin seven assists in the loss. Walther had two kills and four block assists.
LeTourneau trailed 13-7 in the first, but responded and used a 6-0 run to go ahead 18-16. Marksberry and Walther had kills during the spurt while the YellowJackets had three blocks -- including three assisted from Walther. ETBU rallied and scored five straight and nine of the final 10 points to win the set.
A similar story unfolded in the second as ETBU jumped out to a 13-5 lead only to see LeTourneau come back. The YellowJackets used a 13-4 run to claim an 18-17 lead after a kill and an ace from Walther on back-to-back points. Again, ETBU responded and finished the set on an 8-1 run to take a 2-0 match lead.
LeTourneau led early in the third, but ETBU gained the lead at 4-3 and never looked back to complete the sweep.
Lara Hornsby led all players with 17 kills and a .333 hitting percentage for the host Tigers. Claire Stewart had 23 assists and Sadie Kasowski added 12 digs.
UP NEXT
LeTourneau returns to Solheim Arena on Tuesday to open SCAC play vs. Centenary (6 p.m.).
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