MARSHALL, Texas – Battling hard for five tough sets, the East Texas Baptist University volleyball team picked up a huge 3-2 (25-27, 25-17, 25-14, 23-25, 15-11) win over Belhaven University on Friday night in Ornelas Gym. ETBU is now 10-10 overall and 4-5 in the American Southwest Conference East Division.  

Over the course of the game, ETBU had four players achieve a double-double as Natalie Coburn (13 kills, 12 digs), Paige Miller (12 kills, 20 digs), Elyse Shaw (29 assists, 11 digs) and Cassidy Zellmer (26 assists, 18 digs) led the way while Karina Lay had 22 digs on the night. BU's Sydney McEachern posted 42 digs for BU while Lauren Whiting posted a double-double of 11 kills and 12 digs for the Blazers. Jackie Fredericks led BU in kills. Both Meghan Luker and Grace Eidson had 25 assists each.  

After starting the first set with the first point on a kill by Natalie Coburn, ETBU fell behind on a 6-1 run to Belhaven to fall behind 6-2. This lead would escalate to 10-5 before ETBU called their first timeout. ETBU would attempt to respond as two kills from Alexis Contos sparked a 7-5 run to trail 15-12. BU would maintain their lead until it was 19-15 before the set turned in ETBU's favor. Annie Harris would start a rally of four straight points with a service ace and a kill while Sydney Lopez and Contos would tie up the set at 19. A kill by Miller would give ETBU their first lead since 1-0 and the teams would trade points before Zellmer's kill thrusted ETBU into a 24-23 lead. Yet BU would tie and take the lead 25-24 only for a service error to lead to extra play. But the Blazers regrouped and secured the final two points to win set one 27-25.

ETBU started set two with three of the first four points as Miller's service ace put them up by two at 3-1. But BU answered back with an 11-5 run to go up 12-8. However, ETBU would battle back with nine straight points starting with a kill by Allison Sevening while Lindsey Hill added two kills as ETBU went up 17-12. Although BU would trim the deficit to 18-15, it was two kills by Coburn that brought momentum back to the Tigers as ETBU would finish set two on a 7-2 run to win 25-17 and evening up the match.

Set three started the same as set one with the Blazers setting the tempo by going up 3-1. Hill's kill would put the score at 3-2 before BU stormed out on a 5-2 run to lead 8-4. This four point lead by BU would stand until 10-6 before ETBU had another rally starter from Sevening.  Six straight points by ETBU would put them up 12-10. Evelyn Parker stopped the bleeding with a BU kill, only to see the Tigers tally eight straight points to lead 20-12. Key contributions came from three kills each from Coburn and Hill as ETBU went on a 19-4 run to end the set after falling behind 10-6. The final score was 25-14.

Continuing the momentum from the previous set, ETBU scored the first point and would race out to a 6-3 lead as Coburn set the tone once again. For much of the fourth set, ETBU would keep the lead although BU would make it as close as two points on four different occasions. After leading 16-14, the Tigers extended to 19-14 thanks to kills by Harris and Hill. But the Blazers wouldn't back down as they rallied on a 6-1 run to tie the score at 20. Although Hill got ETBU back up by one at 21-20, it was only temporarily as BU tallied three straight points to lead 23-21. ETBU was able to force the set to 24-23 on a Miller kill as they looked to tie the score. But BU stole the final point needed and evened the match with a 25-23 win.

The fifth set started strong for the Tigers as Lay, Miller, and Hill all had kills while Zellmer picked up a service ace. Down 6-2, the Blazers would cut the score to 6-4 only to make an error and let Shaw get a service ace making it 8-4. Coburn would make critical kills to see ETBU's lead up to 10-6 before BU responded with a 3-1 run to trail 11-9. But consecutive Sevening kills and one by Miller made it 14-9. The Blazers made a last ditch effort to rally as they tallied two straight points, 14-11, before Miller finished the match off with a 15-11 fifth set win.

ETBU will finish out their home stand tomorrow at 2:00 p.m. when they host Louisiana College. It will also be senior day as five players for ETBU will be recognized for their careers at ETBU.