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ABILENE, Texas - Sarah Anding, Mandie Moore and Terah Brown been on the same team for 111 matches, and have been victorious in 72 of them since joining the McMurry volleyball program as freshmen in 2007. However, in four years the three seniors have never made it past the semi-finals round of the American Southwest Conference postseason tournament.

But Saturday, McMurry will look to reverse its fortunes and get past that last obstacle to reach the title game for the first time since the 1997 squad made it and won its only ASC title in school history.

Another commonality is the team's first-round opponent. The trio of seniors have faced East Texas Baptist in the first round each postseason since 2007 and took wins as freshmen and as juniors last season in 2009. However, their tournament runs were stopped short in the semi-finals by cross-town rivals Hardin-Simmons.

“I think we have a really good opportunity to win the tournament, we have already beat ETBU once this year,” said the senior libero Anding. “It went to five games, but I think we know what to do to beat them after watching film.”

That regular season match between the two foes took place Oct. 2 in a see-saw match that saw McMurry take sets one, three and five for the victory. McMurry is the No. 3 seed in the ASC West Division while ETBU is the No. 2 seed from the east side. However, both McMurry's overall and league records at 13-5 and 16-9 overall are ahead of the Tigers' 9-8 and 11-18 marks headed into the tournament respectively.

Anding said that the chemistry between the three seniors could be key down the stretch for McMurry.

“I think the three of us are kind of the core,” she said. “We've been playing four years together; a lot of seniors don't play all four years together, so we've been kind of lucky.”

If in fact, McMurry can beat East Texas at 2:30 p.m. Friday in the quarterfinals, then the team will face Texas Lutheran in the semi-finals, a welcome change from HSU who has beaten McMurry in 14 out of the teams' last 15 meetings.

TLU is no pushover, however, and has been one of the league's top teams under head coach Tiffany Davis, and the Bulldogs won their last ASC title in 2007. TLU carries a six-match ASC winning streak into the tournament awaiting the winner of ETBU and McMurry. The Bulldogs took a five-set match from McMurry in Abilene Sept. 17 before finishing the regular-season sweep in Seguin Oct. 23.


If McMurry advances past ETBU Friday, the team would play again Friday evening at 7:30 p.m. against the Bulldogs with the championship match looming for Saturday at 5 p.m.