MARSHALL, Texas – Honoring five seniors in Natalie Coburn, Karina Lay, Paige Miller, Allison Sevening, and Elyse Shaw, the East Texas Baptist University volleyball team provided the perfect tribute with a three-set sweep (25-20, 25-17, 25-10) over Louisiana College in Ornelas Gymnasium. ETBU is now 11-10 overall and 5-5 in American Southwest Conference East Division play.

Coburn made the most of her day with 14 kills and was one dig shy of a double-double while Lay had 16 digs to lead the team. Also making contributions in the match were seven kills each by Sevening, Bailey Byas, and Sydney Lopez. Cassidy Zellmer (eight digs) and Shaw would finish with 19 assists each while Miller collected seven digs. For LC, Jacyln Bright had 12 kills and nine digs while Cabree Bourg finished with 11 digs and Paris Babino had a game-high 25 assists.

ETBU came out of the gates strong with four straight points as Zellmer set the tone with the four serves and a kill before LC got on the board. The Wildcats would manage to cut the lead down to 5-3 before Coburn burned the rally and brought ETBU a spark. Kills from Coburn and Byas made it 10-4 before LC called a timeout. The Wildcats then took their turn as they surged back on a 6-2 run trailing 12-10. Each team traded points before ETBU started rolling againg from a 14-12 lead to a 21-14 lead with a 7-2 run. Again, it was Coburn who had crucial kills while Alexis Contos added one of her own. Still, LC fought back and they would put together a 6-2 run to make it 23-20. But ETBU secured the set on a Sevening kill to take set one 25-20.

In set two, ETBU started strong going up 6-1 as Coburn and Sevening sparked the surge. LC was able to get back to 5-7 as they answered with a 4-1 run. After trading seven points each, ETBU led 14-12 before Byas would started a 7-2 rally to lead 21-14. Coburn would make three kills in that stretch while Lopez added another. The Tigers would maintain the seven point lead as each team scored three points before an attack error by LC gave the Tigers a 25-17 win in set two.

Set three would see ETBU carry the momentum as Byas started a rally of three points before LC got on the board. Then, ETBU had a 7-2 run going on Wildcat errors while Meredith Johnson had a kill to make it 10-3 for ETBU. LC would only get as close as 11-5, but from that point on, it was all ETBU. Lopez and Johnson keyed the rally with a combined six kills as they would up their lead to 16-8. LC would get their last point to trail 18-10 before ETBU finished with seven straight points ending with a kills by Contos resulting in a 25-10 win.

ETBU will head out to Texas Tyler to compete in a crossover tournament next weekend. The first match will be against Howard Payne at 3:00 PM on Friday.