RICHARDSON - East Texas Baptist had gotten the better of McMurry twice during the regular season. However, Friday in Richardson McMurry beat the Lady Tigers 27-30, 30-23, 30-27, 26-30, 15-9. McMurry will advance to play Hardin-Simmons at 5 p.m. Friday in the semi-final round of the American Southwest Conference Tournament. Terah Brown had 19 kills and seven blocks, Erica English had17 kills and Danielle Kelton added 15 in the victory.

McMurry out-hit the Lady Tigers in all five games. However, ETBU was able to take advantage of some McMurry errors to take games one and three. McMurry finished with 11 service errors, eight receiving errors and five blocking errors for the match.

However, ETBU couldn't overcome McMurry's strong hitting performance – especially in games three and five. McMurry had 16 kills and just three errors in the third game for a .310 hitting percentage, and in the deciding fifth game, McMurry dominated with a .333 hitting percentage and didn't have an attacking error.

Shannon Higgins narrowly missed her fourth triple-double of the season. She had 17 digs, 44 assists and nine kills. Sarah Anding led with 29 digs defensively and McMurry out-blocked ETBU 11-6 behind Brown's five solo blocks and two assisted blocks.

English, Brown and Kelton all hit over .225 for the game. English led with a .267 mark, Kelton had .238 and Brown hit .234.

ETBU's Katie Graves finished with 27 kills in the losing effort while Jane Hays added 16. The Lady Tigers won 3-1 Oct. 20 at a tournament hosted by Austin College and later beat McMurry 3-1 Sept. 28 at the ASC Crossover tournament in Clinton, Miss. before falling to McMurry Friday in the first round of the ASC Tournament Friday.

ETBU fell to 20-11 on the season while McMurry improved to 19-9. McMurry will need to beat Hardin-Simmons for the first time this season Friday to advance to Saturday's finals.