MARSHALL, Texas – Entering their fifth straight American Southwest Conference Championship Tournament, the East Texas Baptist University women's tennis team will look to take back the championship title after coming up short in 2018. The 2017 ASC Champions will start the tournament with a match against Concordia University (TX) at 11:30 AM on Thursday at the SMU Indoor Courts due to inclement weather.
 
The last ASC Tournament saw ETBU enter as the defending champions. After shutting out Howard Payne University 5-0, the Tigers fell in the ASC semifinals to the University of Texas Dallas 5-1.
 
This season saw ETBU go 12-5 overall and 4-0 in ASC East Division play to claim their first regular season divisional championship. Since the University of Texas Dallas won the West Division, they will host the tournament. Every year the tournament rotates form East to West Division. ETBU's quest starts with CTX, the number four seed from the West Division. Earlier this season, ETBU came away with an 8-1 victory over the Tornadoes. CTX finished 7-7 overall and 2-3 in the conference.
 
While ETBU enters as among the favorites to win the tournament and having defeated CTX earlier, head coach Jeff Bramlett knows his team is not planning on looking at anything but the first match of the tournament. "They're excited about it. They're going in with the attitude that they're going to win the tournament but the West division is tough. If you get the number four seed out of the west, it's not going to be an easy match and it won't be this year. We played Concordia this year and beat them, 8-1, but it was a hard 8-1. Every match was a hard fought match. We know they're going to come out fighting."
 
Should ETBU win the first round matchup, they will have a second round matchup against Hardin-Simmons University or the University of Ozarks at 10:30 AM on Friday.