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Men’s Tennis
SAN ANTONIO, Texas – The LeTourneau University men’s tennis team finished up their 2017 fall season on Sunday, October 1st at the ITA Regional Meet hosted by Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas.
Junior Zac Crowley-Kurth represented the YellowJackets on day three of competition, playing in the “C” draw main flight semifinals. Crowley-Kurth would end up dropping his match to Micah Austin of Concordia University Texas to finish the regional meet with a 3-1 record on the weekend.
Overall, LETU saw a significant amount of improvement throughout the fall in their two tournament matches and will look to carry over the momentum into the 2018 spring season.
The LeTourneau coaching staff at a later date is officially releasing the spring 2018 schedule with full details posted on www.letuathletics.com.
Men’s Tennis
SAN ANTONIO, Texas – Getting the opportunity to play matches as scheduled, thanks in part to weather that finally cooperated, the LeTourneau University men’s tennis team would be led by junior Zac Crowley-Kurth on day two of the ITA regional hosted by Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas on Saturday, September 30.
Crowley-Kurth would get his “C” draw singles competition underway after being pushed back on Friday due to rain, earning three wins to move into tomorrow’s semifinal round. The San Antonio native earned an 8-5 win over Dalton Barron of East Texas Baptist before going on to defeat David De Los Stantos of Schreiner University by a score of 6-3, 6-3 and then getting the best of Dan Habenicht of Hendrix. Crowley-Kurth will take on Micah Austin of Concordia Texas tomorrow morning with the winner getting Safe Rahman of Austin College who moved into the finals after a default win in the semifinals.
Other “C” draw action saw Cameron Wall earn a 9-7 decision over Dylan Layne of Texas Lutheran before falling to Rahman by a score of 6-0, 6-0 while Collin Patterson picked up an 8-5 victory over Matthew Santos of McMurry. Patterson would drop his second round match to Jake Trejo of Sul Ross State University 6-2, 6-1. Also drawn into the “C” draw were Dale Wallace II and Nash Best, with each dropping a pair of matches.
Rodrigo Vazquez Chairez would be the lone LeTourneau representative in the “B” draw, earning an 8-3 opening round victory over Matthew Stephenson of Texas Lutheran before falling by a score of 6-4, 6-2 to Brian Martin of Mary Hardin-Baylor.
In the “A” draw, Robby Bundy would earn his second straight win with a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Alex Mackellar of UMHB. The senior would not be as fortunate in his consolation quarterfinals match, dropping a 2-6, 6-4 (10-4) decision to Colin Hollingsworth of Hardin-Simmons.
Final results from the regional meet will be updated on www.letuathletics.com tomorrow following the conclusion of matches yet to be played by LETU athletes.
Volleyball
LONGVIEW, Texas – LeTourneau University’s volleyball team used their best hitting percentage of the year. They came away with a 25-13, 21-25, 25-16, 25-15 win over Louisiana College on Saturday, September 30 at Solheim Arena.
With the win, the YellowJackets snapped a five-game losing streak to improve to 5-12 overall and 1-6 in the American Southwest Conference. Louisiana College drops to 0-12 and 0-8 in the ASC in their first season of competition.
“We knew what we had to do against Louisana college and we just had to execute it today which we did,” said head coach Ashley Tiernan in a post-game interview. “We are finally starting to do the things that we want to do, which will allow us to turn our focus to scoring quicker like we want to do.”
The first set would see an upstart YellowJacket squad jump out to a quick lead 4-2 lead and never look back, forcing a Wildcat timeout with the score in favor of LETU 10-4. Things would keep going in LeTourneau’s favor in the set by extending their lead to 20-6 and winning the match 25-13.
LETU let off the gas in the second set and would allow for LC to stick around and gain momentum. With Louisiana College holding a 15-12 lead, the two teams would trade points and keep the lead hovering between two and four points as the YellowJackets could not string together a rally to take the lead. After pulling to within 21-20, Louisiana College would end the set with four straight points to tie the match at one set each.
A dominant third set saw LETU get back to what worked in the first game against the Wildcats, holding LC to a -0.040 attack percentage and seven attack errors in the match. LETU managed to take eight of the first 10 points of the set to force a Lousiana College timeout, eventually leading the game by as many as 12 points and taking the match 26-16.
The fourth set would see the YellowJackets put away LC for good as LETU’s best offensive game of the series would see a .343 attack percentage from LeTourneau on 14 kills and just two attack errors. LC’s attempt to close the gap would come unfounded as the final score in the set would come out 25-15 in favor of the YellowJackets.
“We are working well with one another and straight up competing,” said senior Elyse Wright in a post-game interview. “I am starting to see a lot more drive in the girls, and the competition level among teammates has stepped up.”
Wright ended up with 13 kills just one day after having 16 in a five-set loss to Belhaven while Freshman Hailey Matthews had 18 kills and 11 digs. LETU would meet the Raising Canes block party challenge by recording six blocks with Lauren Egby-McNeal assisting on five of the six blocks. Senior Korissa White would add 28 assists while Cam Taylor had 17 assists and seven digs.
A trip down highway 80 awaits the YellowJackets, when they will travel to Marshall to take on East Texas Baptist on Tuesday, October 3 at 7:00 p.m.
Matt Kinney
Sports Information Director