Tiger Athletic News: Freitag, Taylor Sweep ASC East Player of the Week Awards

RICHARDSON, Texas (10/4/12) – A young, talented volleyball team at East Texas Baptist University continues to earn awards as they swept the ASC East awards for Players of the Week. Kassie Freitag and Shannon Taylor earned the offensive and defensive players of the week for the Tigers.

East Texas Baptist had a strong week in volleyball as they handed the University of Texas-Dallas their first ASC East loss and then won a five-set match vs. Mary Hardin-Baylor to improve to 10-5 and 7-1 in the ASC East. The two wins kept the Tigers in first place in the East as they head into the crossover tournament weekend in Richardson.

Freitag, a freshman from San Antonio, Texas, helped fuel the two wins with 48 total kills. She had a career-high 25 kills vs. UTexas-Dallas and then added 23 kills vs. Mary Hardin-Baylor. Hitting .256 overall, she had several kills in both matches that were game decisive kills. She finished with eight digs, five blocks, and two service aces. In the final set vs. Mary Hardin-Baylor, she recorded five kills in the 19-17 win.

Earning the defensive player of the week is Shannon Taylor, a freshman from Aledo, Texas. She finished with 22 digs vs. UTexas-Dallas in the big conference match and had 21 digs in the five-set win over Mary Hardin-Baylor. In both matches she never had a receiving error and recorded one service ace.

ETBU now has had four players earn ASC Player of the Week award in Freitag and Taylor along with Kolby Sharp and Kayla Taylor.

Torres Hits Game Winning Goal in 2nd Half Over LC

SOCCER (W): PINEVILLE, La. (10/4/12) – Winning their third straight American Southwest Conference contest, East Texas Baptist University held onto a 2-1 win over Louisiana College in women’s soccer. ETBU had to come from behind in the second half for the win as they improve to 6-3-1 and 4-2-1 in the ASC.

Kelley Clancey gave excitement to Louisiana College early as she put the Wildcats up 1-0 in the 12th minute. That lead only lasted five minutes as Kia Jelly tied the match in the 17th minute on one of her two shots taken in the match.

Natalie Torres continued her magic in the box after her hat trick last week for her fourth goal of the year in the 50th minute that would become the game winner. Jelly found Torres in the box for the win as ETBU had to hang onto their fourth ASC win and third straight overall.

ETBU finished with nine shots as six were on goal. Louisiana College took five shots with four on goal. ETBU’s Christina Salas had another strong night in goal with three saves while Louisiana College’s Emily Breaux had four saves.

ETBU will travel to Mississippi College on Saturday, October 6th, for another ASC match up as they continue to push for an ASC Tournament berth.

ETBU, LC Battle to 2 OT Tie in ASC Play

PINEVILLE, La. (10/4/12) – A rowdy American Southwest Conference men’s soccer match took place in Louisiana as East Texas Baptist University and Louisiana College battled to a 3-3 double overtime tie. ETBU had a 3-1 lead in the second half before Louisiana College nailed to penalty kicks in the second half to tie the match. With the tie, ETBU is now 3-6-1 and 2-4-1 in the American Southwest Conference.

Louisiana College struck first in the 26th minute when James Cox found the net past ETBU goalie Cody Hopson. Just before the half, Pete Fitzsimmons set up the tying goal as he found Bryan Romero in the 40th minute.

It was the Fitzsimmons show early on in the second half as he connected for two goals in the 47th minute and 63rd minute to give ETBU a 3-1 advantage. Juan Ramirez and Brett Forbus both assisted on the goals as ETBU took the lead.

What then looked like a comfortable lead for ETBU turned into a foul fest on both teams. Louisiana College was given four yellow cards in the second half while ETBU had two red cards. One red cared resulted in penalty kick for Louisiana College.

Louisiana College’s Fellipe Albuquerque shot both penalty kicks in the 66th and 69th minutes to tie the game at three. ETBU had red cards in the 69th and 80th minutes. ETBU’s Austin Walker had three saves in goal after the 3-3 tie in the second half to save the tie. ETBU’s Fitzsimmons had two chances in less than a minute for a game winning goal in the 87th minute but Louisiana College’s Randy Richard nabbed both shots for saves.

In the overtime periods, Louisiana College had the only shot on goal in the in the first overtime period in the 97th minute as Walker stopped it.

ETBU finished shooting 16 times with eight shots on goal while Louisiana College had 22 shots and 11 on goal. Cody Hopson and Walker each had four saves for ETBU while Louisiana College’s Richard had five saves.

ETBU will travel to Clinton, Miss., on Saturday, October 6th, to face Mississippi College in another ASC match.

BLUE CREW: New Traditions Starting

MARSHALL, Texas (10/4/12) – The students will rise UP!! The East Texas Baptist University student cheering section, the BLUE CREW, are starting new traditions this year. The first of the new traditions will take place on Friday and Saturday, October 5-6, in Ornelas Gym and around campus.

The first new tradition will be a pep rally on Friday nights led by the cheerleaders and BLUE CREW in Ornelas Gymnasium. The first pep rally will take place this Friday at 9:00 p.m. and will feature craziness along with a couple of the football players speaking.

On Saturday, with the game beginning at 7:00 p.m., the BLUE CREW will be doing a "TIGER WALK” through campus to rally all the students for the game. Beginning at 5:00 p.m., and led by BLUE CREW president Evan Sidwell, the BLUE CREW will starting walking to the stadium from University Apartments gaining momentum and students up to game time.

The BLUE CREW is needed this Saturday at 7:00 p.m. at Ornelas Stadium as East Texas Baptist hosts #21 Louisiana College in an American Southwest Conference game. Come on out and support your team.