BELTON, Texas - Competing in the single-elimination first round of the American Southwest Conference Championship, the East Texas Baptist University volleyball team fell in four sets to McMurry University, 21-25, 25-20, 13-25, and 19-25. This ends ETBU's season at 14-15 overall.

ETBU had three double-double performances from Sydney Lopez (14 kills, 23 digs), Elyse Shaw (18 assists, 12 digs), and Cassidy Zellmer (23 assists, 10 digs). Julia De Los Santos and Karina Lay would each have 20 digs. For McM, Jasmine Jones was one dig shy of a double-double to go with 14 kills. Emarie James and Lauryn Davis had 23 and 22 assists respectively while Odalis Rodriguez put up a match-high 28 digs defensively.

The first set started with an exchange of points from both sides as each would score five points in the first ten serves. McM would then go on an 8-4 run to build their biggest lead of the set to 13-9. But ETBU would counter with a 9-3 run of their own to lead 18-16. This included two kills from Lopez and kills from Natalie Coburn and Allison Sevening while Lizeth Flores got a big block to put the Tigers up two. After the War Hawks tied the score at 19, they would steal momentum and finish with a 6-2 run to take the first set 25-21.

With Julia De Los Santos serving to start set two, ETBU would strike for five straight points to lead 5-0, including an ace from De Los Santos herself. The War Hawks would never lead in this set as the Tigers would continue to build on their start by making it 14-4 including two kills from Flores in the stretch. The largest lead by the Tigers would be as high as thirteen at 19-6 on a service ace by Zellmer. McM would not let ETBU off easy though as they stormed back with a 13-4 run to cut the deficit to 23-19. But the Tigers would prevent the comeback on a kill from Coburn as they would get the last two-of-three points to win set two 25-20.

Sevening started set three with a kill to give the Tigers their first and only lead at 1-0. Three unanswered points for the War Hawks made it 3-1. While ETBU would make it a tight game trailing 5-4 on a Lopez kill, McM would then grab control of the set and stormed off scoring 14 of the next 18 points to lead 19-9. A kill from Paige Miller made the score 19-10 before the War Hawks ran off with six of the final nine points to pick up a 25-13 win.

Dropping the first point of set four, ETBU would respond with four of the next five points to lead 4-2 on kills by Alexis Contos and Lopez. The War Hawks tied the score at four before they made two errors to go along with a Flores kill making ETBU lead 7-4. But nine unanswered points later, McM led 13-7. Although ETBU would get back to within two points (15-13, 17-15), they were unable to catch the War Hawks, who used an 8-4 run to finish the match with a 25-19 victory.

ETBU loses several players from this team but returns a strong core of players for the 2019 season.