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LeTourneau University – Sports

SOFTBALL TOURNAMENT

A press conference Tuesday, September 19, at 10:00 am will announce the details regarding the inaugural YellowJacket Athletic Advisory Council Celebrity Softball Tournament. The Steudler Lounge on the campus of LeTourneau University is the location for the press conference. Come and find out all the details including who will be playing in the tournament, when the tournament will be taking place and the unveiling of the official logo. Representatives from the teams will be available at the press conference.

WOMEN’S TENNIS

ABILENE, Texas – Picking up where they left off yesterday evening, the LeTourneau University men’s and women’s tennis teams earned multiple victories in the flighted American Southwest Conference Fall Tennis Championships co-hosted by McMurry University and Hardin-Simmons in Abilene, Texas on Saturday, September 16th.

On the women’s side, Maddison Brackenreg would pick up a first-round win over Ashlee Montgomery in the women’s singles flight A before finishing fourth while Gracie Favela would earn two wins in the flight B singles before falling in the flight finals to Tiffany Stankiewizc by a score of 6-4, 6-2. Terin Murray would win twice to pick up a third-place finish in the singles E draw after defeating Shannon Kelly of Mary Hardin-Baylor and Briana Perez of McMurry University while Sophia Seay earned two straight victories after dropping her opening match to Kelsey Doege of Hardin-Simmons.

Doubles action for the women saw Seay and Favela pick up a win over Goza and McClear of Howard Payne in the A flight Hall, and Murray earned a pair of wins to go 2-1 in flight B and finish third.

On the men’s side, Jimmie Henson would earn a third-place victory in flight C with a 4-6, 7-6 (3), 10-7 win over Cole Weiss of UMHB while Daniel Lopez picked up his second straight win in flight D to finish fifth. Zac Crowley-Kurth would also finish fifth with a consolation finals victory in flight F over Ty Tarver of East Texas Baptist as would Robby Bundy with a 6-5, 6-3 win over Tyler Howard of ETBU. Rodrigo Vazquez Chairez would finish third in flight H with a comeback 2-6, 6-1, 10-2 victory over Robert Galligan of UMHB and Dale Wallace II would earn his second straight win in flight K to finish fifth. In a battle of teammates in flight I, Nash Best would defeat Cameron Wall by a score of 6-0, 5-7, 10-7.

Men’s doubles action saw Vazquez Chairez and Lopez earn an 8-3 victory over Trejo. Gayton of Sul Ross State in the consolation semifinals before dropping a fifth-place match to Austin and Compton of Concordia Texas in flight C. Bundy and Crowley-Kurth would finish sixth in flight D following an 8-6 victory over Mackellar and Swords of UMHB. Wallace Wall would drop an 8-1 decision in flight E semifinals to Santoz and Vasquez before losing by a score of 8-4 in the third-place match to a pair from McMurry.

ITA Regional Tournaments will finish out the 2017 fall season for the YellowJackets with the LETU women getting the first chance in the regional meet. The women will go to Tyler, Texas next weekend to compete September 21st through the 24th while the men will go from September 28th through October 1st in San Antonio, Texas.

MEN’S SOCCER

LONGVIEW, Texas – Putting four of their seven shots on goal, the LeTourneau University men’s soccer team saw time run out on them in a 1-0 loss to Concordia University Texas at the Joyce Family Athletic Village in Longview, Texas.

LETU falls to 0-4-2 overall and 0-2-0 in the American Southwest Conference while the visiting Tornadoes improved to remain a perfect 5-0-0 and 2-0-0 in the ASC.

The YellowJackets would try to make the most of the opportunities from a distance in the first half, putting up five shots and forcing four saves by Tornado keeper Rob Oakley. Consecutive fouls by LeTourneau around the 10-minute mark in the first half would lead to back-to-back free kicks for CTX, where Nash Cole would find the ball at his feet in the middle of the box after LETU goalie Miguel Cabrera would be knocked down by another Concordia player. Cole would hammer home what would end up being the only goal of the game at the 10:24 mark.

Despite giving up the early goal, LeTourneau would make multiple late pushes and play with the ball in the attacking third of the filed but would be thwarted by the Tornado defense to end the game.

CTX would hold a 17-7 advantage in shots which included an 8-4 advantage in shots on goal. Each team would take a total of five corner kicks in the game while a total of 29 fouls would be called (18 on LeTourneau, 11 on Concordia Texas).

Freshman David Sanchez would lead the YellowJackets with two shots on goal in the game while Zachariah Malik and Dustin Grayboth fired off one shot on goal. Cabrera would play all 90 minutes in goal, making a total of seven saves.

American Southwest Conference plays continues for LETU next week when the YellowJackets hit the road to Abilene, Texas to start a season-long six-game road swing. LeTourneau will launch the trip with a 4:00 pm matchup at Hardin-Simmons University on Thursday, September 21.

LONGVIEW, Texas – A very physical and rough first half led the LeTourneau University men’s soccer team in a 1-0 hole and down a man at halftime. LeTourneau eventually dropped a 2-0 loss at home to the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor in American Southwest Conference action. It took place at the Joyce Family Athletic Village in Longview, Texas on Thursday, September 14.

LETU is now 0-3-2 on the year and 0-1-0 in the ASC while Crusaders picked up their fourth win to improve to 4-1-0 and 1-0-0 in the ASC.

The YellowJackets would stand their ground early on in the game, matching the physicality of the visiting Cru early on and turning away multiple UMHB shots. Follow a yellow card on UMHB at the 15:15 mark, Austin Pavatt would get carded with a yellow card on a penalty in the box leading to a penalty kick for Mary Hardin-Baylor that would find the back of the net.

Trailing 1-0 at the 19:03 mark, LeTourneau would fire off the next four shots to put the pressure on the Crusaders, leading to another Crusader playing getting a yellow card with 18 minutes remaining in half. Things would start to settle down before consecutive yellow cards on Eduardo Barron just 5:11 apart would see the sophomore sent off with a red card one minute and 31 seconds before halftime, forcing the YellowJackets to play the final 46:31 of the game a man down while trailing 1-0.

UMHB would double their lead in the 52nd minute (51:29) on a goal off a corner kick that would result to a scramble in the middle of the box where the ball would land at the feet of Julio Mar leading to the goal. LETU would keep pushing and forcing the ball into the attacking third of the field, putting up four shots in the half.

“We had some chances tonight, and we showed a lot of heart this evening,” said head coach Matthew Haesecke in a postgame interview. “We had a lot of freshmen that were able to come on and get some minutes and show that they can play in big games.” “We just have to be able to get guys healthy and ready to play Saturday.”

UMHB held a 17-10 shots advantage in the game and held the YellowJackets to just one corner kick while taking six of their own.

Zachariah Malik would come off the bench to lead LETU with three shots total while Miguel Cabrera played all 90 minutes in the net, making two saves.

The first weekend of American Southwest Conference action will conclude for the YellowJackets on Saturday, September 16 with a 4:30 pm kickoff against Concordia University Texas.

WOMEN’S SOCCER

LONGVIEW, Texas – The LeTourneau University YellowJackets defeated the Concordia University Texas Tornadoes 1-0 in the second game of the opening weekend for American Southwest Conference play on Saturday, September 16.

With today’s victory, LETU improved to 5-1-1 overall and 1-1-0 in conference play while CTX fell to 4-3-0 and 0-2-0 in the ASC.

“I’m so proud of these players for how they continue to respond to every challenge with such heart and determination,” Coach John Antonisse said. “Today’s win was a total team effort.”

The goal came early on when freshman Madison Urbana won a corner for the YellowJackets. Bari Schunict found her teammate Kennedy Keer with the service which she then redirected with her head into the net (3:08) for the first and only goal of the game.

The YellowJackets weathered a bit of a storm from the Tornadoes fending off some close shots but were able to come up on top and earn their first ASC win of the 2017 campaign.

LeTourneau outshot the Tornadoes 13-9 with six of those finding the frame of the goal and forcing five saves by Concordia keeper Shelby Franco. For the YellowJackets, senior Carrye Funk picked up her third clean sheet of the year.

The YellowJackets will hit the road to Abilene, Texas next weekend to face off against Hardin-Simmons University at 2:00 pm on Thursday, September 21. HSU is ranked No. 7 in the latest United Soccer Coaches Top-25 poll and is a perfect 5-0-0 in addition to a 1-0-0 ASC conference record.

CROSS COUNTRY

Joplin, Missouri – In one of the largest single cross country meets of the year, the LeTourneau University women’s and men’s cross country teams competed against teams from three different divisions of athletics. They were at the Missouri Southern State University Southern Stampede at the Tom Rutledge Cross Country Course in Joplin, Missouri on Saturday, September 16.

In a meet that featured 21 women’s teams and 22 men’s teams ranging from NCAA Division III, the National Junior College Athletic Association, and the NAIA, the YellowJacket women would wind up with a total of 591 points for a 19th place finish while the men would finish 20th (545 points).

The women would be led by freshman Kirstiana Welch with a 97th place finish with a time of 20:59.85 followed by Brittany Bergman with a 136th place finish (21:37.50). Bridey Davis (23:50.79) and Allison Fuller (24:11.41) would also compete for LETU, finishing 184th and 191st, respectively.

On the men’s side, junior Michael Field who would finish 82nd with a time of 28:29.26 on the 8K course. Austin Coblentz would finish 120th with a time of 29:45.41 followed closely by Wesley Anderson (128th, 29:54.08) and Nathan Glastetter (146th, 30:25.08). Ben Duitsman would also turn in a result on Saturday morning, finishing 197th with a time of 34:11.70.

After opening the season with four meets in the first three weeks of the season, the LeTourneau runners will now be off until Saturday, October 7 when LETU heads to the East Texas Baptist Invitational in Marshall, Texas.

MEN’S TENNIS

ABILENE, Texas – Playing in a flighted tournament-style competition, the LeTourneau University men’s and women’s tennis team got their first action of the fall 2017 season at the American Southwest Conference Fall Championships hosted by McMurry University and Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, Texas.

The women’s singles competition has not yet recorded results, but in the women’s doubles, LETU saw freshman Katie Hall and junior Terin Murray team up for a 9-8 (5) victory over the doubles pair of Graham and Kendall from Hardin Simmons University. Sophia Seay would team up with Shannon Kelly of the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor to earn an 8-2 doubles win while the teams of Lauren Rockwall and Alondra Gamboa along with Maddison Brackenreg and Gracie Favela will get a chance to bounce back from losses in the consolation bracket tomorrow.

In men’s doubles competition, the team of freshman Cameron Wall and sophomore Dale Wallace II earned an 8-2 win over Barron and Blanco of East Texas Baptist to move into tomorrow’s flight E semifinals while Christian Ball will get his doubles action underway tomorrow with Howard Payne’s Noah Marlin. Nash Best and Collin Patterson would fall by a score of 8-5 to Brooks and Delao of Dallas Baptist University while Robby Bundy and Zac Crowley-Kurth dropped an 8-4 decision to Mason and Tarver of ETBU. Christian Farris and Jimmie Henson (8-2) and Rodrigo Vazquez Chairez and Daniel Lopez (8-3) also dropped doubles decision.

In the Men’s Single draws they would get through the first two rounds of competition on Friday, with Henson and Vazquez Chairez winning their first match before dropping their second game of the day. All players are still alive going into tomorrow, with Wallace, Ball, Wall, Best, Bundy, Crowley-Kurth, Lopez, and Farris all earning a consolation bracket win to move on for the right to play for fifth-place in their flight.

Notable men’s matches tomorrow include Henson taking on Cole Weiss of UMHB for third place in his flight while Vazquez Chairez will take on Robert Galligan of UMHB for third place in his respective flight. The Flight I Men’s Single draw will see teammates Best, and Wall, playing each other in the consolation finals for a chance at fifth.

VOLLEYBALL

IRVING, Texas – Behind a pair of double-doubles by freshman Hailey Matthews, the LeTourneau University volleyball team got a pair of much-needed wins over Johnson and Wales University (Colorado) and Brooklyn College to go 2-0 at the University of Dallas Tournament in Irving, Texas on Friday, September 15th.

LeTourneau (4-7) defeated the Wildcats in four sets with the match score going 25-19, 22-25, 25-18, 26-24. In the second match of the day against the Bulldogs, LeTourneau swept the match with scores of 25-11, 27-25, and 25-17.

In their match against Johnson and Wales, LETU would have to fight back after building an early lead. The Wildcats would build a 14-11 lead midway through the first set before a 9-1 run by the YellowJackets gave LeTourneau a 20-15 lead that would allow them to win the match eventually. Hitting woes would return for LeTourneau in the second set, where Johnson and Wales would force eight attack errors in the set by LETU to win what would turn out to be LeTourneau’s only dropped set of the day.

The YellowJackets would respond in a big way by not trailing in the rest of the match to take the third set before hanging on in the fourth set to snap a six-game losing streak.

Matthews’ first double-double of the day would come with 16 kills and 18 digs while also recording service aces and three blocks. Savanna Stutts and Julie Smith also had double-digit kills in the game, recording 11 and 10, respectively.

Match number two against the Bulldogs would go much easier for the YellowJackets, committing just a total of 12 attack errors in the entire match while holding the Bulldogs to just a .050 hitting percentage in the game. The big difference maker in the set against Brooklyn College would come with a 13-2 advantage in service aces for LETU while also out-blocking the Bulldogs 5-2.

Stutts and Matthews would once again be the YellowJacket leaders in the match with the senior leading all players with 14 kills. In addition to Matthews adding 12 kills, a game-high four service aces would give the freshman seven total on the day. Other team leaders against the Bulldogs included Korissa White with 21 assists and Audrey Galindo with 17 digs.

A busy upcoming week for the YellowJackets will see LeTourneau next host the University of Dallas in an American Southwest Conference match at 7 p.m. on Thursday, September 21st. LETU will then host all 12 ASC volleyball-playing schools for the American Southwest Conference volleyball crossover tournament, with 18 matches played in two days at Solheim Arena.

 

Matt Kinney
Sports Information Director