JACKSON, Miss. – Traveling east to Mississippi, the East Texas Baptist University volleyball team came away with a split against Belhaven University. ETBU fell in the first match, 3-1, and then won the second match, 3-0. ETBU is now 6-5 and 5-5 in the American Southwest Conference East Division.
Opening the first match with a first set win, the Tigers then dropped three straight sets to BU (13-25, 25-22, 25-16, 25-23).
Allie Fennell and
Kayla Rainey each finished with 10 kills while
Hope Shipp was one kill away from a double-double to go along with 15 digs.
Claire Johnson would record a double-double of 13 assists and 11 digs while
Lillie Hill had 16 digs.
The Tigers would rebound in the second match by sweeping the Blazers in three sets (25-18, 25-23, 25-20). Rainey had nine kills while
Annie Harris had seven. Both
Macy Guerrero and
Kaylee Morton had 12 assists while Hill (17) and Shipp (13) combined for 30 digs.
Game 1: BU 3, ETBU 1 (13-25, 25-22, 25-16, 25-23)
Starting down 2-0, the Tigers would then put on four straight points to lead 4-2. At 7-3 in ETBU's favor, the Blazers would trim the score to 9-8. But the Tigers regained momentum with 10 straight points including two kills from
Ainsley Reeve and two service aces from Hill. BU would push to within 19-10 before ETBU closed out the set as 25-13 winners.
BU opened the second set with five of the first seven points. Two attack errors by the Blazers along with a Shipp kill knotted the score at five apiece before Reeve gave ETBU their first lead of the set, 6-5. The teams traded points as ETBU kept the lead until BU tied it at 13. They then grabbed the lead at 18-15 while ETBU responded with a 5-1 run for the 20-19 edge. At 22-20, the Tigers were unable to get any of the final five points as BU evened the match at one apiece.
Sparked by their set two win, the Blazers would catch fire scoring the first seven points in set three before the Tigers got on the board. This lead would move to 15-5. ETBU's best run of this set would be five straight to cut the lead in half, 15-10. But the Tigers were unable to get closer as the Blazers would extend the lead to nine points (22-13) before exchanging the final six points for a 25-16 win.
Needing a win to force the fifth set, the Tigers started off with an 8-2 run as they were helped by five attack errors from BU. However, the Blazers answered with an 8-2 run of their own to tie the set at 10. Trading points, the two teams saw themselves at 17-17 until BU would put three straight points to lead 20-17. BU kept the lead till match point at 24-21 and although ETBU would get kills from Rainey and Shipp, the Blazers ended the match on the final serve, 25-23, to take match one.
Game 2: ETBU 3, BU 0 ((25-18, 25-23, 25-20)
BU opened the second match with a 4-1 run but ETBU then took their turn countering with a run, 10-3, to lead 11-7. The lead was then shrunk to 15-13 only for Rainey to pick up a pair of kills and increase it to 19-13. Despite three straight points from BU, the Tigers would end the first set on a 6-2 rally to win 25-18.
ETBU then took a 5-1 second set before allowing BU to trim the deficit to 5-4. The Blazers would get their first lead of the set at 9-8, which ETBU overtook to a 10-9 lead. Five points later, ETBU found themselves down 14-10, but would never waver. They tied the score at 18 only to trail by two points on the next two serves. With Reeve and Shipp picking up kills to go with BU attack errors, the Tigers then led 22-20. The match would come down to a 24-23 lead for ETBU, who would benefit off a bad set by the Blazers to win 25-23.
BU set their sights on trying to win set three as they opened a 4-1 lead. Including two kills from
Bailey O'Bannon, ETBU would surge on to an 8-2 run for a 9-6 lead. Once the Blazers evened the score at 10, both teams would trade the next six points before the Tigers saw four of the next five points in their favor. BU would get the set as close as 17-16 but ETBU would use three straight points to make it 20-16. Though BU came to within two, 22-20, a kill from Shipp, and a service ace by Guerrero ended the match in ETBU's favor at 25-20.
The Tigers will be back in action next Friday night at Ornelas Gym for two contests against Louisiana College. The first match will be at 4:30 PM.
