Hess Lawn Mower Header
Better View Tree Trimming Header Ad
Hess Gravely Sales Event Header
ETB Advertising Banner Header Terrie 1
ETB Advertising Banner Header Terrie 2
Cypress Basin Hospice 2023 Header
Sandlin Header 2022

LeTourneau University – Sports

TYLER, Texas – Traveling just down the road to the University of Texas-Tyler and Tyler Junior College, the LeTourneau University women’s tennis team finished up their 2017 fall season by competing at the 2017 ITA Southwest Regional Championship on Friday, September 22 and Saturday, September 23.

LETU saw multiple different athletes in action across three different flights of singles action and two flights of doubles action in the 15-team regional meet.

In the “A” draw, the YellowJackets saw Maddi Brackenreg fall to Cecile Wilde of Southwestern University by scores of 6-4 and 6-2 while Gracie Favela dropped a 7-5, 4-6, 5-10 match to Elizabeth Labora of Texas-Dallas. Brackenreg would be paired up against Julie Swets of Southwestern in the “A” consolation flight with Swets taking a 6-1, 6-3 decision.

Flight “B” had the largest contingent of LETU athletes in action with Katy Hall earning a 6-1, 5-7, 11-9 win over Neah Garza of McMurry University before dropping a winner’s bracket match to Erin McCleer of Howard Payne by scores of 7-6, 4-6, 10-3. Sophia Seay would end up losing a game by scores of 6-3, 6-2 to Katie Smith of Schreiner while Terin Murray won her first round match of Ashly Schenk of East Texas Baptist in straight sets (7-5, 6-3). Mururay’s second round match would not fare as well for the sophomore, dropping a 6-4, 6-3 decision to Beck Sherman of Hendrix who will play in Sunday’s flight “B” championship match.

In the flight “C” singles draw, Hannah Moore, Alondra Gamboa, and Mimi Samdi all earned first-round wins over their respective opponents before dropping second round matches.

Flight “A” doubles action saw Brackenreg and Favela fall to Schneemann and Kahl of Southwestern University while flight “B” saw first-round victories for Gamoba and Seay as well as Murray and Hall (8-2) over Maloy and Jantzen of Texas-Tyler.

Be sure to check back in the coming weeks to www.letuathletics.com as head tennis Coach Suzanne Merritt releases the full spring 2018 schedule.

LONGVIEW, Texas – The LeTourneau University volleyball team could not shake off the early morning blues, dropping a 25-12, 27-25, 25-14 home match to Howard Payne University in the American Southwest Conference volleyball crossover tournament at Solheim Arena in Longview, Texas on Saturday, September 23.

LETU falls to 4-11 overall and 0-5 in the ASC while HPU improves to 5-10 and 3-3 in the conference.

Howard Payne would get off to a quick start in the first set, going on a 10-2 to open up a 15-5 lead and never look back while holding the LeTourneau to a 0.091 attack percentage in the set.

Set two would be the closest set of the match as LETU held the lead for a majority of the game and appeared to be on their way to a set victory. HPU would trail 23-21 before tying the match at 23-23 and eventually come out on top of a 27-25 victory to go up two games to none.

In the third set, Howard Payne would look to put the match away after trailing 4-2 early on before going on a 14-2 run to take a 16-6 lead en route to a 25-14 set win to sweep the match.
Despite the loss, Savanna Stutts was strong at the net for the YellowJackets posting a hitting percentage of .318 with ten kills and two blocks. Freshman Hailey Matthews would add eight kills and seven digs.

The YellowJackets will be back in action on Friday, September 29 in Solheim Arena at 7″00 pm to play host to Belhaven University.

ABILENE, Texas – Following a 1-1 draw at Hardin-Simmons on Thursday afternoon, the LeTourneau University men’s soccer team scored two second-half goals in 10 minutes to walk away with a 2-1 road win at McMurry University at Wilford Moore Stadium in Abilene, Texas on Saturday, September 23.

The YellowJackets are now 1-4-3 on the year and 1-2-1 in the American Southwest Conference while the War Hawks slipped to 4-3-0 and 1-1-0 in the ASC.

McMurry would draw first blood with a goal by Josh Erwin at the 14:14 mark off a rebound on a shot by Jesus Sanchez, then sent to Erwin by Aaron Web. LETU managed to get off four shots in the first half, but would be limited in their opportunities as only two of the shots would be on goal with the War Hawk keeper making saves on both shots.

A new found level energy would be had by the YellowJackets in the second half, sensing some urgency to tie the game and get back the goal that they had given up in the first half. Kieran Coull would put in a shot at Alex Chavez that wound up being turned away but right back to Zachariah Malik who sent the put back into the back of the net to knot the score at one in the 62nd minute.

LeTourneau at the 71:51 mark, Eduardo Barron sent a ball into Edgar Sanchez who managed to score his second goal in three days to put the YellowJackets up 2-1 with just 18 minutes remaining in regulation. McMurry would make one last-ditch effort and attempt to tie the game and send it into extra-time but they blocked a shot by Matt Hernandez with five seconds remaining and time would run out to send LETU home victorious.

LeTourneau would overcome a 6-4 first-half deficit in shots to outshoot the War Hawks 11-9 while holding a 6-5 advantage in shots on goal. Dustin Gray led the YellowJackets with three shots off the bench while David Pinilla had two shots. LETU goalie Miguel Cabrera earned his first win of the year between the pipes, playing all 90 minutes and making four saves.

The YellowJackets will take a week off due to the way that the ASC schedule falls before returning to action on Tuesday, October 3 at Centenary College in the 2017 non-conference finale.

Abilene, Texas – After taking an early 1-0 lead in the first half, the LeTourneau University needed a double-overtime golden goal to defeat McMurry University by a final score of 2-1 on September 23 in Abilene, Texas.

With the win, the YellowJackets improve to 6-2-1 overall and 2-2-0 in the American Southwest Conference while McMurry falls 2-6-0 and 0-3-0 in the ASC.

The YellowJackets scored in the 23rd minute when Ali Saldana found Kelli Sonnier. Sonnier put the ball in the back of the net from 15 yards out to put LETU to 1-0. The YellowJackets maintained the lead into half-time.

In the second half, the War Hawks would strike back in the 74th minute when Emily Fisher was able to slot the ball past the LETU goalkeeper Carrye Funk.

At the end of regulation, the score was still even, so the game went into overtime. Because the first overtime did not result in a goal, a second overtime was necessary.

In the 108th minute, Sonnier once again found the goal, credit the assist to Katherine Baker, and, this time, it was the game-winner.

LETU held a commanding 16-5 advantage in shots and outshot the War Hawks 5-1 in the extra time. LeTourneau held a 5-2 advantage in corner kicks with each team making three saves.

The YellowJackets will be back at the Joyce Family Athletic Village on Thursday, September 28 to play the Lobos of Sul Ross at 7:00 pm.

LONGVIEW, Texas – LeTourneau University is playing host to the American Southwest Conference volleyball crossover tournament. LeTourneau’s volleyball team would find themselves on the wrong end of a 25-16, 25-19, 25-18 loss to McMurry before falling to the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor 25-10, 25-13, 25-15 at Solheim Arena in Longview, Friday, September 22.

With the games taking part of the Lace Up 4 Pediatric Cancer event that all 12 ASC schools are participating in this weekend, LETU falls to 4-10 overall and 0-4 in conference while McMurry improves to 9-3 and 2-1 in the ASC. The Crusaders picked up their 13th win of the year and are 13-1 overall and 5-1 in the ASC.

Offensive struggles would be apparent in the first match against McMurry as the War Hawks would hold a .361 – .116 advantage in attack percentage and fore 23 YellowJacket attack errors to only six of their own. A 5-1 advantage in blocks would add to the deficit for LeTourneau, which only saw a lead come in the second set while trailing through the entirety of the first and third sets.

Senior Savanna Stutts led all players in the match with 12 kills followed by Hailey Matthews with eight and Lauren Egby-McNeal with seven. Korissa White dished out a season-high 34 assists and added ten digs.

A long layover from playing the 12:30 p.m. match and having to wait until 8:00 p.m. against Mary Hardin-Baylor did not play into the hands of the YellowJackets as LETU would hit -0.63 for the match while committing 26 total attack errors. UMHB managed to hit an efficient .283 and out block LeTourneau 5-0 to overcome a 6-1 LETU advantage in service aces.

Torie Langston along with Matthews would each end up with five kills in the match while Ashlyn Johnson had four. White managed to fill the stat sheet for a second consecutive game, finishing with 13 assists, eight digs, and three service aces.

LETU will look to salvage the weekend with a 10 a.m. match against Howard Payne University at 10 a.m. tomorrow morning. HPU went 1-1 on Friday, losing in five sets to Texas-Tyler before bouncing back with a three-set win over Louisiana College

Matt Kinney
Sports Information Director