LeTourneau University – Sports

MARSHALL, Texas – A scoreless first half would make way for a pair of goals by the LeTourneau University men’s soccer team in a 2-0 shutout victory over East Texas Baptist University at Cornish Field in Marshall, Texas on Saturday, October 7.

The victory sends the YellowJackets to 2-5-3 overall and 2-2-1 in the American Southwest Conference while the Tigers fall to 4-6-1 overall and 0-5 in the ASC.

“It felt like two different games tonight the way that the halves played out, but our guys were able to settle down in the second half and play their game which gave us the result we wanted,” said head coach Matthew Haesecke in a post-game interview. “We emphasize on going towards the goal, and as a result, we found the back of the net twice.” “To earn a victory over our rivals is very pleasing and hopefully we can continue to build on our first shutout victory of the year.”

LeTourneau would be forced to take long shots from outside the box in the first half, putting up two shots and earning a corner kick before ETBU would even put a shot up. The Tigers would get opportunities on their end while forcing the YellowJackets to stay on the defensive side of things and limit chances, which led to a 7-4 advantage in shots in the first half. LETU would be carried by their senior goalkeeper Miguel Cabrera who would make multiple vital saves in half to keep the game tied at the break.

In the second half, the YellowJackets would settle in and push the ball into the attacking third of the field, letting off two shots in the opening five minutes of the half. The score would remain tied at zero until the 61st minute when Edgar Sanchez would turn on a pass from 40 yards out on the left half of the field and shoot a laser off the far post that would deflect off of Tiger goalie Bryant Botello and make the score 1-0 in favor of LeTourneau.

Looking to extend their lead, a yellow card on ETBU would lead to a free kick sent into the box that would find junior Alec Wier who would score for the second consecutive game and double the YellowJacket lead to 2-0 just seven minutes after opening a 1-0 lead.

LETU’s defense would stand tall throughout the rest of the game as the YellowJackets would nearly put a cap on things with Wier putting up a shot that would take a miraculous save by the Tigers. LeTourneau would end up settling for the two-goal victory and earning their second consecutive win over East Texas Baptist in as many years.

East Texas Baptist outshot LeTourneau 11-10, but the YellowJackets put up seven shots on goal compared to six for ETBU. Cabrera would end up making six saves in net while keeping a clean slate to pick up the win.

A road game at the University of Ozarks is next in store for LeTourneau, with kickoff scheduled for 3:30 p.m. on Thursday, October 12.

 

MEN’S AND WOMEN’S CROSS COUNTRY

MARSHALL, Texas – Running in what could be a preview to the American Southwest Conference Championships later this month, the LeTourneau University men’s and women’s cross country teams picked up fifth place finishes at the East Texas Baptist University Invitational in Marshall, Texas on Saturday, October 7.

The women would run a full 6K for the first time this season, finishing fifth overall which included a fourth-place finish among ASC schools with 131 points. The University of Texas-Dallas would win the women’s D-III meet with 58 points followed by McMurry University with 69 points and the University of Texas-tyler with 71 points.

On the individual matter of things for the women, freshman Kirstiana Welch had a career-best 6K time of 24:50.04 to finish ninth overall while sophomore Alexis Segura finished 19th with a 25:45.96 time. Brittany Bergman would give the YellowJackets three finishers in the top-25 with a 25th place finish (26:27.73) while Bridey Davis came in 36th with a time of 27:48.09. Allison Fuller (42nd, 28:33.54), Julianne Hood (45th, 29:39.41) and Olivia Stine (50th, 31:15.44) also ran for LETU at today’s meet.

On the men’s side of things, LeTourneau would match the women with a fifth place overall finish and fourth among American Southwest Conference schools by finishing with 117 points. UT-Tyler took home the team title with 48 points with McMurry (74) and UT-Dallas (76) taking second and third, respectively.

Junior Michael Field earned his best finish of the year with a second place finish coming in with a time of 27:06.12 to lead the YellowJackets. Nathan Glastetter earned a top-20 finish with a 19th place finish with a 28:30.80 time while Austin Coblentz would not be far behind with a 23rd place finish (28:44.30). Lorien Nightingale came in 32nd with a 29:33.84 followed by Daniel Lopez (41st, 32:34.20) and Ryan Mailhot(46th, 36:12.60).

“We are still improving which is where we want to be and what we want to do as a team,” said head coach Britton Koestler in a post-meet interview. “Having a top-10 finish for both the men and the women is a good thing for us, and we are looking forward to improving at the Mississippi College meet next Saturday.”

LeTourneau will make one of their longest trips of the year next week at the Mississippi College Invitational held on the Choctaw Trails in Clinton, Mississippi on Saturday, October 14.

VOLLEYBALL

LONGVIEW, Texas – On a day that saw the LeTourneau University volleyball team honor three seniors in between matches, LETU would bounce back from a three-set loss to Centenary College to earn a three-set sweep of Jarvis Christian College at Solheim Arena in Longview, Texas on Friday, October 6.

Scores of the match against Centenary would be 25-20, 25-21, and 25-19 in favor of the Ladies while the YellowJackets picked up a 25-19, 25-14, 25-15 victory over the Bulldogs in the nightcap.

In the first match against Centenary College, a sloppy first set would get things started with both teams needing to shake out some early match jitters before settling in. Following back and forth play that saw three ties in the first 10 points of the match, Centenary would take the lead at 6-5 and hold onto the lead and never relinquish it while building a lead of as many as eight at 20-12. A furious late rally by the YellowJackets would close the gap to 23-19 before the Ladies managed to take two of the final three points of the set to take a 1-0 set lead.

The most significant lead of set two would come in crunch time as neither team would be able to pull away from the other with multiple lead changes happening all the way up to a 19-19 and 20-20 tie late in the set. Following a timeout by Centenary after LETU took a 20-19 lead, the Ladies would close out the game on a 6-1 run and earn a 25-21 set win and go up two sets to none with control of the match in their hands.

Feeling the pressure of having their backs against the wall, LETU never would be able to gain control of the third set as Centenary would take a 7-3 lead and force a YellowJacket timeout before extending their lead to 13-6. Five straight points by LETU would pull the game back to within two at 13-11, but it would be to no avail as the Centenary lead would manage to hover between two and five points throughout the rest of the set with the Ladies eventually securing a 25-19 match win.

A team-high 12 kills by Savanna Stutts would go along with four blocks for the senior while Korissa White had 18 assists. Junior Liz Williams(20) and freshman Hailey Matthews (15) led the team in digs.

Following senior night festivities before their match against the Bulldogs, the YellowJackets would play much looser than typical and allowed for emotions to be part of their game which would play to their advantage. Despite a slow start that saw Jarvis Christian tie the game at three and again at four, LETU would rattle off five straight points to open up a 9-5 lead and never look back in the first set as JCC would only get within two points once more in the game. Williams would be a big key to the rally by LeTourneau, as the YellowJackets would go on a 5-0 run with the junior at the service line. The set would eventually go to LETU by a score of 25-19.

In set two, LeTourneau would once again use the serving abilities of Williams to open up the game, scoring six straight points to open up an 8-2 lead after seeing the set tied at 2-2. LETU would manage to hit .344 in the second set while earning a 25-14 set victory and start to feed off the crowd that was in full support of their YellowJackets.

Set three would appear to be the closest of the three sets in the match as LETU would let a pesky Jarvis Christian team hang around until midway through the game. Trailing by a score of 9-7, LeTourneau would manage to tie the set at 10-10 on a White service ace before a Williams service ace would tie the match at 14-14. From that point forward, LETU would score six straight points to take a 20-14 lead and give up just one more point in the set while finishing the match on a 14-1 run.

“We went into our match against Jarvis Christian differently than we have any other match this season and it paid off tonight,” said head coach Ashley Tiernan in a post-game interview. “Senior night is always a big night no matter who the seniors are, and we were able to use our emotions to our advantage.”

Elyse Wright led all players in the match with 14 kills while adding one block as Matthews would tack on seven kills and 15 digs. White had 20 kills while Cam Taylor had 16 and two service aces while the YellowJackets had a total of nine service aces in the match.

A four-game road swing starts for LeTourneau on Wednesday, October 11th with the start of the second half of American Southwest Conference play at the University of Texas-Tyler. “It’s always different the second time around in conference play because each team is going to go after each other’s flaws,” said Tiernan. “Volleyball is a game of mistakes, and we have to find a way not to make as many mistakes which is our goal moving forward.”

LETU will close out the season with 11 of their final 12 matches on the road, with the lone home game coming on Tuesday, October 17 against East Texas Baptist University.

WOMEN’S SOCCER

MARSHALL, Texas – A late first-half flurry that saw two goals in 49 seconds moments before halftime would end up being the difference as the LeTourneau University women’s soccer team fell to rival East Texas Baptist University 2-1 at Cornish Field in Marshall, Texas on Saturday, October 7.

The loss sends the YellowJackets to an overall record of 6-4-2 overall and 2-3-1 overall in the American Southwest Conference while the Tigers picked up a key ASC win to improve to 8-4-1 overall and 3-2-1 in conference.

“Tonight we played well, but had a few breakdowns towards the end of the first half that ended up being the difference,” said head coach John Antonisse in a post-game interview. “We came out in the second half to try and win and showed a lot of heart, but ended up falling just short of completing the comeback.” “If we keep playing like we did tonight, there are a lot of good things on the horizon for us.”

LETU came out firing early in the match, putting the first four shots of the game up in the first 20 minutes while forcing three saves by ETBU keeper Clarie Montondon. The defense would then have to pick up for the YellowJackets as ETBU would earn five first-half corner kicks to keep the pressure on LeTourneau and hold possession in the attacking third of the field.

East Texas Baptist would appear to catch the first big break of the game when a foul would be called in the box on LeTourneau in the 27th minute setting up a penalty kick for Hannah Murin, but the shot would sail wide right, and the scored would remain tied at zero. LETU’s last chance in the first half would come on a shot in the 42nd minute by Stephanie Sammon that would force another ETBU for a save and then a counterattack by the Tigers. Another foul on LeTourneau leading to a free kick from 40 yards out would be sent into the box by Kibriana Bonner and find the head of Ashleigh Rondon and then finished off into the back of the net to give ETBU a 1-0 lead just 1:02 before halftime.

A stunned YellowJacket squad would look to run out the remainder of the half and trail by just one at intermission, but the Tigers would take advantage of the little time remaining and end up scoring the second goal on a well-placed shot from outside the box that would beat LETU keeper Carrye Funk.

Regrouping during the break, LeTourneau would come out of the break and play as aggressively as they did in the first 45 minutes of play and look to catch a break and get back into the game. It was what the YellowJackets were looking for that would come at the 76:50 mark as a corner kick would be awarded and taken by freshman Brittany Boyd. Boyd sent the ball into the box and would find the head of Jennifer Martin who managed to find the back of the net and cut the lead to 2-1 in favor of ETBU.

Having just under 13 minutes left in regulation to look for an equalizer, ETBU would go on the defensive and hold LETU without a shot down the stretch and hold on for victory.
The Tigers outshot the YellowJackets 12-8 in the game while LETU held a 6-4 advantage in shots on goal.

Martin, along with Tamara Martin and Cecilia Pichardo led LeTourneau individually with two shots apiece while Funk made two saves on 12 total shots faced.

The YellowJackets will continue a season-long four-game road swing on Thursday, October 12th with a trip to Clarksville, Arkansas to take on the University of Ozarks at 1:00 pm.