RICHARDSON, Texas - Playing an elimination match on day two of the American Southwest Conference tournament, the East Texas Baptist University volleyball team's season came to an end with a five-set loss to Concordia University-Texas (13-12), 20-25, 19-25, 25-21, 25-20, and 7-15. ETBU finishes the year at 21-7.
Playing inside of the UTD Activity Center on the campus of University of Texas Dallas, the match pitted the ASC East Division No. 2 seed against the ASC West Division No. 2 seed. Set one resulted in a 25-20 Concordia victory, and five different Concordia players contributed multiple kills in that set alone.
In the early stages of the first set, the action was knotted at 4-4 following a Mallory Sanders kill for ETBU. Five-straight Concordia points shifted the action to a 9-4 edge. ETBU then claimed six-of-nine points to draw within two points of Concordia, 12-10, but it came no closer than that in dropping the opening set. In set one, Concordia had a .359 team attack percentage, and ETBU hit .121.
The second set closed with another Concordia victory to swell its edge to 2-0 in the match. Concordia claimed the 25-19 second-set win despite dropping to a .186 team attack percentage.
Back-to-back kills by Sanders and Bailee Moore, respectively, two-straight Hannah Jones service aces and a Concordia attacking error gave ETBU an early 5-0 advantage in set two. ETBU continued moving along as two-consecutive Adaeze Elonu kills swelled the team's lead to 15-7. Concordia responded, however, winning 10-of-12 points to tie the second set, 17-17, and the ETBU bench called a timeout. Following that pause in the action, Concordia nabbed eight-of-10 points to assume a 2-0 match lead.
Set three saw a shift in the match, and ended with ETBU notching a 25-21 victory to slice its match deficit to 2-1. In the third set alone, Reighanna Guzman totaled 10 assists, and Elonu had six kills. Sanders contributed five kills for ETBU, while Morgan Rupp had three service aces. For set three, ETBU improved its team hitting percentage to .286, and Concordia posted a .152 attack rate.
The fourth set continued the shift, and ETBU grabbed a 25-20 win to tie the match at two sets apiece. Sanders had a kill on as pass from Guzman to seal ETBU's fourth-set victory. In set four, Sanders had eight kills, and ETBU upped its team attack percentage to .325.
Needing the fifth and final set to prevail, ETBU trailed 9-3 and could not recover with Concordia winning the match-clinching point on an assisted block, 15-7.
Overall, ETBU hit .209, and Concordia posted a .268 team attack percentage. Sanders had a match-high 22 kills to go along with 10 digs and a service ace. Elonu tallied 15 kills and four total blocks, while Guzman had three kills, 27 assists and 13 digs. Rupp chipped in 11 digs and three service aces.
