For the second straight year, the East Texas Baptist University volleyball team has a member named to the All-Region team.

Middle Blocker Adaeze Elonu, also named first team All-ASC, was named an honorable mention to the West Regional team. She is the fourth player in ETBU history to be named to the All-Region team. Kolby Sharp was named to the All-Region team in 2013, first since Arden Tunnell in 2003. She directly followed Allison Castillo, was the first All-Region team member in program history in 2002.

Elonu led the team with 124 blocks, finishing her career with the most blocks in school history with 395. She averaged 1.17 blocks per set, which was second best in the conference; with a season high nine blocks against Hendrix and at Hardin-Simmons. She also had a stellar season offensively, finishing seventh in the conference in hitting percentage at .276 with 255 kills. She had a season high 15 kills against Southwestern and Sul Ross. Elonu was named first team All-ASC two of her three years in the program.

During Elonu’s time in the program, the Tigers had a total record of 68-34. The team advanced to the conference tournament all three years and won nine ASC Tournament games. Elonu also finished with many program records—in addition to the career blocks record she also has the single season blocks record with 166 in 2013, and the seventh and ninth best marks in single season blocks with 124 in 2014 and 105 in 2012. 

Putting together another stellar year in volleyball, East Texas Baptist University had six players earn All-American Southwest Conference awards.  Two players were first team, three on the third team, and one as honorable mention.

Mallory Sanders and Adaeze Elonu were both named to the first-team and are on an All-ASC team for the second year in a row.  Sanders, who was a second-team selection last year as a freshman, led the team with 339 kills and a 3.49 kills per set average while recording 300 digs.  For the year she had 13 double-doubles and a career-high 26 digs vs. Texas-Tyler on October 28^th. 

Elonu broke the program record for blocks this year and finishes with 395 blocks in a three-year career.  She also holds the single-season record for blocks of 166 set last season.  She finished this year with 255 kills and 124 blocks.  She set a career-high in kills with 15 twice this year.

On the third team was Kayla Taylor, Kolby Sharp, and Bailee Moore.  Taylor is a three-time All-ASC selection and is on the third-team for the second year in a row. She finishes her career with 2,906 assists which is third all-time at ETBU.  She led the team with 625 assists and recorded five double-doubles this year. She also had 197 digs and averaged 6.01 assists per set.

Sharp also receives her third straight All-ASC award and is graduating early after only three years of playing at ETBU.  She finishes seventh all-time in kills at ETBU with 829 and third in blocks with 345. This year she was third on the team in kills with 172 and had 55 digs and 85 blocks. 

Moore had a great freshman season hitting .292 as one of the top hitters in the ASC.  She came away with 127 kills, 31 digs, and 31 blocks.  She averaged 1.87 kills per set and had a career-high 17 kills vs. Texas-Dallas on October 7^th.

Nicole Buzzard rounds out the final award as a honorable mention selection for the second year in a row. She collected 349 assists and 62 digs while averaging 4.59 assists per set.

ETBU finished the year at 17-12 and 13-3 in the ASC in second place.  They were the #2 seed in the ASC Tournament and set a program record for consecutive wins at 14. Ornelas Gym’s home winning streak was kept alive, too, and is now at 18 straight matches as they haven’t been beat at home since 2011.

Three players from the East Texas Baptist University women’s soccer team were awarded All-ASC status for their play in 2014.  Natalie Torres, Christina Salas, and Kristi Freund were all named to a team.

Making the second team all-conference was senior Natalie Torres who has earned an All-ASC team award three times,  She finished with five goals this season to lead the team. She has been named to the all-academic team in both 2012 and 2013, as well as being named ASC honorable mention in 2012 and to the third team last season. She was also named ASC offensive player of the week on October 2, 2012.

Joining Torres were two members on the third team—defender Kristi Freund and goalie Christina Salas. Freund made 14 starts her freshman season and played in all 15 games. She took four total shots this season with two on goal. She also was a rock on defense, helping with shutout efforts against Millsaps and Ozarks.

Salas had previously been named to the all-academic team in 2013. She tied her career high with 17 saves against Howard Payne and recorded two shutouts this season—at Millsaps and against Ozarks. She started all 15 games in goal, making a total of 82 saves. She faced 200 total shots and only allowed 26 goals, for a goals against average of 1.67. 

Three members of the ETBU men’s soccer team were named to the American Southwest Conference all-conference team. Christian Garcia, Gustavo Vasquez, and Juan Perales all were named to a team.

Senior Christian Garcia was named to an All-ASC team for the third time in his career and this year voted onto the first team. He had been named to the second team following the 2013 season and to the third team in 2011. He was also named to the all-academic team following the 2011 season. Garcia recorded nine goals, which led the team; as well as three game winning goals.

Defenseman Gustavo Vasquez was on an All-ASC team for the second year in a row as he was named to the third team. Last year he was an All-ASC honorable meniton selection in his first year at ETBU. He made 13 starts this season, recording an assist against Hardin-Simmons and assisting with defense in seven shutouts. ETBU shut out Austin College, Texas Lutheran, Hendrix, Concordia, Texas-Tyler, Louisiana College and Hardin-Simmons this season.

Freshman goalie Juan Perales was given honorable mention status. His first year he started in 12 of 15 games. He finished the year with 47 saves, almost four per game. He had a save percentage of .758 and allowed only 1.41 goals per game. He recorded six shutouts—in wins over Hendrix, Concordia, Texas-Tyler and Hardin-Simmons as well as ties against Austin College and Texas Lutheran.

ETBU finished the year with five wins and ended the regular season on a 1-0 shutout win over eventual ASC Tournament Champion Hardin-Simmons.

Propelling the East Texas Baptist University men’s soccer team to a 4-0 win over Louisiana College, senior Christian Garcia was given his second American Southwest Conference “Player of the Week” award this season.  He netted two of ETBU’s four goals in the shutout win.

Garcia netted goals in the 18^th and 68^th minutes to seal the win for ETBU. The 18^th minute goal put ETBU ahead, 2-0, as he was given the ball by fellow senior Bryan Romero.  In the 68^th minute, Brett Forbus passed the ball up to Garcia giving him his second goal of the match.  In the match, he took five shots with four on goal in his final match at Cornish Field on senior day.

For the season, Garcia now has eight goals for 16 points to lead the team.  He has taken 31 shots with 21 on goal this year.  He was also named the ASC’s player of the week on September 2^nd. ETBU is still in contention for a spot in the ASC Tournament as they head to West Texas for their final two regular season matches vs. Howard Payne and Hardin-Simmons.

Becoming one of the American Southwest Conference’s best runners in 2014, Landon Price (Mount Vernon, Texas) gained his third straight runner of the week award.  This is a first for an ETBU runner as no runner as ever received three ASC awards in one year for the program.

“What an honor for Landon,” says head coach Natalie Bach-Prather.  “He has finally overcome his injury from the beginning of the season and has found his stride at the right moment.”

Price won the Austin College Invitational 5K race with a time of 16:01 out of 44 runners.  ETBU finished in third place out of six teams.  He finished six seconds ahead of the second place finisher.  He was also the ASC’s runner of the week for October 7 and 13.  No runner this year has won the award three times this year and only one other runner has won it twice in UT-Tyler’s Conner Benson. 

ETBU Cross Country will next run at the American Southwest Conference Championships on Saturday, November 1^st, in Tyler.

Having a stellar weekend in West Texas, senior Adaeze Elonu (Houston, Texas) was awarded the American Southwest Conference “Offensive Player of the Week” award.  It is her first ASC award of the year.

Elonu averaged 10.5 kills and five blocks per match and hit .529 overall.  She had 12 kills and nine blocks in a sweep of Hardin-Simmons on Friday night and then added nine kills and a .471 hitting percentage on Saturday at Howard Payne.  Overall she had 21 kills  and only three attack errors on 34 total attacks and 10 blocks.  She is now just two blocks away from becoming ETBU’s all-time leader in blocks.

ETBU is now 13-8 on the year and has won 12-straight matches.  They are tied for first place in the American Southwest Conference at 11-1 and have a 17-match home winning streak in Ornelas Gym which is sixth best in NCAA Division III. 

Making history for the East Texas Baptist University men’s cross country program Landon Price (Mount Vernon, Texas) gained his second straight American Southwest Conference runner of the week award.  This is the first time in the program for a runner to earn back-to-back ASC runner of the week awards.

Price finished in the top five at the inaugural ETBU invitational in Marshall with a fourth place finish.  His time of 26:21 tied his personal best from 2013 on the muddy course as he was the top NCAA Division III runner out of over 300 runners.

He won the award last week for his first award of the season after his time at the Mississippi College Invitational.  ETBU is running at the Austin College Invitational this weekend in a 5K in Sherman tuning up for the ASC Championships.

Becoming one of the top quarterbacks in the American Southwest Conference, Josh Warbington (Hallsville, Texas) earned his third “Offensive Player of the Week” award in five weeks after his performance at #18 Texas Lutheran.  Warbington is the only offensive player to earn the award three times this year from the ASC.

“Josh Warbington is playing outstanding right now and doing a really great job of being a captain for us and leading us on the field,” says head coach Joshua Eargle.  “What’s special about it is he had three other players around him have career nights in Kendall Roberson, Tyler Bates and Stephen Alfred.  It all starts up front offensively and I really love what our offensive line has done up front for us this year, too.”

Warbington threw for 426 yards going 22-of-37 with no interceptions and four passing touchdowns.  He was just five yards shy of breaking his career high as it was his third game in his career with 400 or more yards passing.  He also rushed for a touchdown from 12 yards out. 

He has also received the award on September 14^th and 28^th.  ETBU has had three players earn five player of the week awards this season with Wayne Grice and Tyler Bates also receiving special teams player of the week awards.

ETBU is currently 3-2 on the year and will host Howard Payne University on Saturday, October 18^th, in the homecoming game.

Sanders Voted ASC’s Player of the Week

Pushing the East Texas Baptist University volleyball team to three big wins last week in the American Southwest Conference, sophomore Mallory Sanders was named the player of the week.  She helped ETBU to their eighth straight win and 16^th overall in Ornelas Gym.

Sanders posted 48 kills with two double-doubles as ETBU defeated Texas-Tyler, Concordia-Texas, and #20 Mary Hardin-Baylor.  She tied her career high with 19 kills in the five set win over Mary Hardin-Baylor recording her ninth double-double of the year.  Her first double-double came on Friday vs. Concordia-Texas with 15 kills and 10 digs.

Price Named ASC Runner of the Week

Landon Price has earned East Texas Baptist University’s first award this season for men’s cross country as he has been named the American Southwest Conference’s male runner.  He was one of the top runners at the Mississippi College meet.

Price finished 14^th overall out of 169 runners finishing ahead of several NCAA Division I, II, and III runners.  He ran a 27:22 in the 6K tying his personal best from 2013 and was the top NCAA Division III runner at the meet. 

ETBU was 17 out of 24 teams at the meet finishing ahead of NCAA Division I Nicholls State.

Becoming one of the best offensive lines in the nation, the East Texas Baptist University offensive line was named the D3Football.com “Offensive Line of the Week.”  This is the first award for the ETBU offensive line that is senior led.

Charles Williams (Sr., Crowley, Texas), Landon Boffman (Sr., Waco, Texas), Alex Shetter (Sr., Crane, Texas), Michael Garcia (Gr., Pottsboro, Texas), and Tyler Scott (So., Missouri City, Texas) were the starting five linemen in the 68-15 win over Millsaps College.  This offensive line helped ETBU to a program best 68 points and 715 yards of total offense. 

This line allowed runs of 61 yards, 54 yards, and 39 yards and protected their quarterback Josh Warbington allowing him to pass for five touchdowns and 391 yards.  Warbington was awarded the ASC Offensive Player of the Week for the second time in three weeks, too, which is a tribute to the offensive line.

ETBU is on a three-game winning streak and is only the fourth team in program history to start 3-1. ETBU has a bye week before they play Texas Lutheran in Seguin on October 11.