MARSHALL, Texas – For the fourth consecutive season, the East Texas Baptist University women's tennis team clinched a spot in the American Southwest Conference Championship Tournament. They come into the tournament as the defending champions and will face Howard Payne University on Thursday morning at 9:00 a.m. Finishing at 5-9 overall and 4-1 in the East Division, ETBU begins their quest as the second seed and will travel to the University of Texas Tyler, who is the number one seed.
 
Last season, ETBU put together a miraculous run all the way to the conference championship where they picked up their first ASC crown. In the run, they defeated Concordia University (5-0), top seed and host Hardin-Simmons University (5-3) and UTT (5-3) to clinch the title. This gave ETBU the automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament where they would reach the second round.
 
ETBU starts their title defense against the ASC West Division No. 3 seed Howard Payne University. HPU is 6-13 overall and 3-3 in the conference. This will be ETBU's first matchup against the Yellow Jackets since 2015 when ETBU defeated HPU 9-0. ETBU is 1-2 all-time against HPU.
 
Should ETBU win their first round game against HPU, they will advance to Friday's semifinal at 10:30 AM against the winner of Ozarks/UT Dallas.