MARSHALL, Texas – McMurry University Volleyball closed the season with a heartbreaker on the road, falling in five sets at East Texas Baptist on Saturday in Marshall, Texas. ETBU won the final set 16-14.

McMurry matched a season-high with 16 service aces and stayed alive with wins in the second and fourth sets. The War Hawks forced match point with a 14-12 lead, but ETBU charged back and scored four straight to win at home.

The War Hawks finish a challenging season with a 9-12 overall record, while going 7-9 in conference games (excluding COVID-19 forfeits). This campaign ends an outstanding run of 14 consecutive winning seasons. This is also the first losing season for Coach Cammie Petree since re-taking the reigns of the program back in 2008 – an unprecedented run of 13 straight winning seasons in one stint.

East Texas Baptist enters the ASC tournament as the fourth seed with a 13-10 overall record and 11-7 conference record.

ETBU 3, McMurry 2 (19-25, 25-21, 27-29, 25-17, 14-16)

Summary: Points were basically even in this contest, but ETBU had a 52-40 kill advantage. The War Hawks closed that gap with service aces and a 10-7 block advantage. Madison Cuellar and Ashlyn Quillan each had five aces and led with 17 digs and 18 assists, respectively. Brooke Cox had a team-high 10 kills, while Megan Martinez had six kills and a team-best five blocks. Allissa Rodriguez also had 17 digs to match Cuellar.

Set 1: McMurry had more kills in the first set with a 12-9 advantage, but had 10 errors in a close loss. The lead changed five times, but ETBU eventually pulled away with a pair of 4-0 runs to turn a one-point deficit into a six point lead. Bri Garcia had three of the first four kills for McMurry, while Cox added five in the set.
Set 2: McMurry controlled the entire second set to even the match, jumping to a 17-9 lead after a long 5-0 run. ETBU began to rally at the end, but were stopped at 21. Five players had at least one kill for McMurry.

Set 3: In the tightest set of the contest, ETBU would come out of the smoke with a 29-27 victory. The Tigers had match point set up ahead 24-22, but McMurry stayed alive with a kill by Rodriguez and an ace by Cuellar. ETBU went ahead once again and continued a back-and-forth pattern from there, as kills by Megan Martinez, Addison Kimberling and Aubrie Sibley prolonged the set. ETBU finally broke through on an attack error.

Set 4: McMurry left no doubt in the fourth set with the most decisive set win of the match, taking a 5-1 lead early and never looking back. McMurry had six service aces in the frame, including two each by Cox, Cuellar and Rodriguez. Addyson Tiffin also had back-to-back kills midway through the match to create separation.

Set 5: The lead changed five times, with ETBU jumping ahead first and McMurry later taking the lead at 6-5. From there, things were back and forth and were later tied at 11-11. Kimberling had a kill for the War Hawks to take the lead again, then two attack errors later made it 14-12 for McM. ETBU then came back with a 4-0 run to win it.