JACKSON, Miss. – Playing in day one of the Millsaps College/Belhaven University Invitational, the East Texas Baptist University volleyball team split their two matches and now is 6-1 on the year. ETBU opened the day with a 3-0 win over Central Baptist College and then fell to the University of Dallas, 3-2.
 
ETBU went to 6-0 following their three set sweep over Central Baptist College at 25-17, 25-22, 25-20 to stay perfect on the year. Kayla Rainey produced seven kills and 14 digs to lead ETBU while both Allie Fennell and Cassidy Zellmer had five. Zellmer contributed 10 assists in the match while Julia De Los Santos was second on the Tigers with 12 digs.
 
The Tigers then grabbed a 2-0 lead against the University of Dallas only to see the Crusaders bounce back and take the match in five sets (27-25, 28-26, 19-25, 18-25, 15-8). Kennedy Peacock led the way with 13 kills while Zellmer produced a double-double with 19 assists and 10 digs. De Los Santos finished as the team leader in digs with 20.
 
Game 1: ETBU 3, CBC 0
After trading points early in the first set to be tied at three, the Tigers found themselves up 8-4. CBC would get within 9-7 before ETBU would respond with seven unanswered points to lead 16-7 with Frias contributing a pair of service aces in the stretch. The Mustangs would put up eight of the next thirteen points to trail 21-15. But a service error and a kill by Zellmer propelled the Tigers to a 25-17 set one win.
 
ETBU kicked off the second set with three straight points before jumping off to an 8-2 lead. This margin would stand until CBC cut the deficit to 14-12. Then, they would grab their first lead of the set at 17-16 by scoring five unanswered points. ETBU then found themselves down 22-19, before Rainey started a late surge with a pair of kills. Attack errors by the Mustangs helped the Tigers finish off six straight points for their second set victory at 25-22.
 
 Each team scored three points to start set three before a kill by Peacock ignited four straight points for a 7-3 Tiger edge. But CBC answered with four straight of their own to tie the score. Kills by Carley Boswell, Lizeth Flores, Nicole Sands, Fennell, and Rainey would lead to ETBU going up 17-10 to make the 10-3 run the difference of the set. The Mustangs would manage to get the contest as close as 18-14, but the Tigers would not relinguish their lead as they propelled themselves to a 25-20 set three win to complete the sweep.
 
Game 2: UD 3, ETBU 2
The first set was evenly match as neither side built a lead of more than three points for a while. UD scored the first point while ETBU would be the first to reach 10 points on a service error by the Crusaders. Trailing 14-12, the Tigers ran off four straight points to be up 16-14. After UD regained the lead at 19-18, ETBU then put up a six-point rally to be at set point up 24-19. But the Crusaders would survive set point five straight times and took a 25-24 lead. ETBU would tie the game and then rack up two more points ending the first set on a Peacock kill.
 
The second set also required more play as ETBU had to scrap for a 28-26 win. After leading 2-0, ETBU fell behind 7-5 to the Crusaders, who put up a 7-3 rally. ETBU would flip the score to lead 15-12 on a 10-5 rally. Another Tiger rally made it 21-17 before the Crusaders would get an 8-3 surge to lead 25-24. Fennell and Flores would regain the Tiger lead with kills before Harris and an error by UD would secure a two set lead for the Tigers.
 
Like the first two sets, the first half of set three was evenly match as ETBU and UD played to a 9-9 tie. But after three straight Tiger points, momentum would switch to UD as they tallied 12 of the next 15 points to lead 21-15. ETBU would only manage two more points to trail 23-19, but they were undone by two late Crusader points as the match was 2-1.
 
UD's momentum carried into set four as they scored four straight points to start it off on their way to a 10-4 lead. But the Tigers would manage to get within four at 15-11 with kills by Boswell, Rainey, and Fennell only to fall further behind at 20-12. ETBU never could pull closer as the Crusaders wrapped up the fourth set 25-18 to send it to a tiebreaking fifth set.
 
The Tigers appeared to have the early edge as Fennell, Peacock, and Flores guided them to a 6-3 lead. UD would answer with seven straight points to go up by four. A Bailey Byas kill would turn out to be the next to last point scored by the Tigers as UD ran off with a 15-8 win taking the match.
 
ETBU will look to bounce back tomorrow as they take on both Millsaps College and Birmingham-Southern. The games will be at 10:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. at Millsaps.