LONGVIEW, Texas - McMurry University volleyball split its pair of matches on the first day of the American Southwest Conference crossover tournament at Solheim Arena. The War Hawks swept past LeTourneau University, 3-0, and then had the tables turned on them in a 3-0 loss to nationally-ranked UT-Dallas.
In its first match of the day, McM defeated host LeTourneau by scores of 25-16, 25-19, 25-18. The War Hawks hit an impressive .354 on attacks, compared to just .124 for the YellowJackets. It was McMurry's sixth sweep of an opponent this season.
Jordyn Burnell led the offense in the LeTourneau match. Burnell hit a healthy .400, booking 12 kills, and making just two errors, in 25 attempts. She also had 11 digs.
Sophomore
Justice McGowan added eight kills and 10 attempts, without an error on the attack. McGowan also had two blocks.
Jasmine Jones and
Madison Reed had seven and six kills, respectively.
The setter tandem of
Emarie James and
Lauryn Davis had 36 of the War Hawks' 40 assists. James booked 20 assists, and Davis 16.
Libero
Odalis Rodriguez also had 11 digs and an ace.
Christian Brown had two aces and eight digs.
Verlyncia Nelson had two solo blocks.
In the evening session against ASC East co-leader and No.-16-ranked UT-Dallas, the War Hawks found the going tough. The Comets defeated McMurry by scores of 25-14, 25-10, 25-10. It was McM's worst attack average for a match this season, hitting a negative-.202 for the evening.
UTD had 10 team blocks, allowing no War Hawk for than three kills in the match. Burnell and McGowan had a pair of blocks.
The tournament concludes on Saturday with McM facing Belhaven University at 3 p.m.
