Senior designated player Alexis Padilla (Houston, Texas / North Shore Senior HS) had the best week of her career with five RBI, one home run and was 8-for-13 at the plate for a .616 average. She hit a home run off of Texas-Tyler pitcher Kelsey Batten which was only the fourth of the year given up by Batten. She later recorded two RBI in game one and game three against Ozarks in a complete sweep of the Eagles. She hit in every game last week with two hits against UT Tyler in game one and three hits against Ozarks in game three. Padilla had a slugging percentage of .923 and an on-base percentage of .643.

Batting .500 and hitting three home runs, East Texas Baptist University baseball player Josh Warbington has been named the American Southwest Conference “Hitter of the Week” as long as being on the D3Baseball.com “Team of the Week.” This is the first award for Warbington this season and the third for the team.

Warbington had the best series of his career with three home runs, including a grand slam, with eight RBI and a .500 average at the plate with a slugging percentage of 1.500. He went 4-of-6 in the first two games of the series with seven RBI, two home runs, and a double. In the first game against McMurry, Warbington was 2-of-3 with three RBI, a double and a home run. In the first game on Saturday he was 2-of-3 with four RBI and a home run. In the final game he was 1-of-4 with an RBI from another home run. In the 9-2 win on Friday, Warbington accounted for three of the nine runs on a solo shot and then a double for two RBI to make it 8-0. On Saturday, ETBU was only up 3-1 when Warbington hit a grand slam in the sixth inning of a seven inning game for a 7-1 lead. In the final game, he homered in the fifth inning to tie the game at one.

ETBU is currently 11-4 and 2-1 in the American Southwest Conference and host Texas Dallas this weekend at Woods Field.

Already with a program best 8-0 start and wins over regionally ranked opponents, the East Texas Baptist University women’s tennis team was awarded their first-ever national ranking by the ITA. ETBU enters the second poll of the season at 37^th and is only one of two teams that weren’t rated to make the jump into the national poll.

ETBU has defeated one nationally ranked team in then #23 University of LaVerne, 7-2, who was also ranked fifth in the West Region. ETBU has also picked up regional wins over #12 McMurry, 8-1, #15 Hardin-Simmons, 8-1, and #18 Schreiner, 6-3. In another close regional match, ETBU earned a 5-4 win over a tough Southwestern University team.

Only in their fifth year of the program, ETBU has become one of the top teams in the West Region after their 8-0 start.

ETBU also has nationally ranked players from the November release in #10 singles player Kayla Casey and #19 Casey/Kate Bramlett in doubles and #24 regionally ranked Tiffany Stankiewicz. Casey won the fall ITA Regional Meet qualifying for the ITA National Meet.

ETBU will be off until March 12 when they travel to San Antonio, Texas, to face Texas Lutheran, #24 Trinity University, and Gustavus Adolphus.

Three East Texas Baptist University women’s basketball players have earned an American Southwest Conference award in April Leonard, Taylee Alexander, and Lauren Lee. Leonard earned the highest award being named to the All-ASC East Division first-team while Alexander was a second-team and All-Defensive team selection and Lee was voted honorable mention.

This is Leonard’s ninth ASC award in her four-year career at ETBU and her first All-ASC East Division first-team award. She previously earned ASC East Division Freshman of the Year, All-Freshman Team and honorable mention recognition in 2012-13 along with being the player of the week four times. This year she finished averaging 14.8 points per game, had 75 assists, and 50 steals while shooting 41 percent from the floor. She leaves ETBU as the all-time steals leader with 226 and has 1,100 career points which is ninth all-time.

Alexander earns her first All-ASC award being voted onto the East Division second-team and is a member of the All-Defensive team. This year, she has also been the ASC East player of the week twice and finished the season averaging 13.5 points and 8.6 rebounds per game. She shot .536 from the floor which led the ASC, recorded 45 blocks, and had eight double-doubles.

Lee was named to the honorable mention team and averaged 8.7 points and 4.8 rebounds per game. She finished shooting .477 from the floor and scored 10 or more points in nine games.

In head coach Edsel Hamilton’s first season, ETBU finished with a 17-10 overall record and an 8-7 record in ASC play. After earning the ASC East Division No. 3 seed, the team competed in the ASC Championship Tournament and advanced to the semifinals. The 17 wins mark the program’s highest total since the 2006-07 season, while the conference tournament victory was ETBU’s first since 2007.

Receiving an American Southwest Conference award for the first time for his first collegiate event, Zack Biles is the “Athlete of the Week.” Biles earned the ASC award for his first place at the Trinity University Open track and field meet.

Biles cleared 15 feet (4.55 meters) to take first place out of 13 vaulters finishing ahead of NCAA Division I, II, and III competition including Incarnate Word, Hardin-Simmons, and McMurry. It was his first collegiate meet and first time he has vaulted since early in high school.

This is the first award for ETBU this season in the second outdoor meet they have attended.

Capping off a 21-win season and the American Southwest Conference East Division Championship, the East Texas Baptist University men’s basketball team had five players earn All-ASC awards along with Bert West being named the coach of the year. Bret Atkins, Dylan Augustine, Jay McKnight, Junior Mitchell, and Jordan Quillian all earned awards.

Atkins (Sr.; Croatia) took home several pieces of hardware being named the ASC East “Defensive Player of the Year”, was one of five players to make the All-ASC team from both the East and West Division, All-ASC East first-team, and on the All-ASC East defensive team. During the year, he was twice named the ASC East Division player of the week and he finished averaging 12 points per game. He made 53 three-pointers shooting 38 percent from the arc and shot 45 percent from the floor. He started and played in all 27 games and scored 458 points in two years at ETBU.

Augustine (Jr.; Hathaway, La.) earned All-ASC East second-team honors and was also named to the All-ASC East Defensive team and the ASC All-Tournament team. This is his fifth All-ASC award in his career as last year he was All-ASC third team and he was a member of the ASC All-Freshman team in 2013-14. He earned three awards this year to bring his total to five. He finished with 12.8 points per game and then lead the ASC in three-point field goal percentage (47 percent) and made three-pointers (78). In three years, he has made 201 three-pointers and has 879 points.

McKnight (Fr.; Marshall, Texas) became the 14^th player under coach West to make the All-ASC East Freshman team. He played in 21 games and hit nine three-pointers and scored 38 points.

Mitchell (Sr.; Marshall/Houston, Texas) earns his fifth ASC award in his four-year career at ETBU being voted honorable mention All-ASC. Playing three full years with one another medical redshirt year, he made the All-ASC East honorable mention team. Last year he was named ASC All-Tournament and was the ASC Tournament MVP and was twice before named All-ASC honorable mention. This year, he averaged 10.2 points per game and had 87 assists while shooting 42 percent from the floor. He finishes his career with 896 points and 258 assists.

Quillian earns his first ASC award being on the honorable mention team. He averaged 9.6 points per game and 4.9 rebounds per game. He started 18 games playing in 27 and made 55 percent of his shots from the floor and scored 10 or more points in 15 games.

Rounding out the awards is head coach Bert West as he earns the “Coach of the Year” award for the second straight year. He was named the ASC East Division “Coach of the Year” for guiding ETBU to the program’s second ASC East Division championship. This is also the second year in a row that ETBU has had a 20-win season.

ETBU finished the year at 21-6 and won the ASC East Division. The 21 wins is the second most in the NCAA Division III era behind the 26 wins last season.

Sweeping the American Southwest Conference baseball player of the week awards, both Conner Combs and Kyle Loson earned hitter and pitcher awards for East Texas Baptist University. This is the first time this year that ETBU has swept the awards.

ETBU went 3-1 last week to improve to 7-2 overall. Combs batted .385 (5-for-13) with three home runs and 10 RBI, while Loson went 1-0 with a 0.00 earned run average.

Combs had a career week at the plate with 10 overall RBI and three home runs putting up over a 1.000 slugging percentage. On Feb. 19 against Schreiner (Texas) University, Combs went 2-for-4 with two homers and seven RBI in a 10-1 victory. A day later on Feb. 20, Combs hit a two-run home run in game one of the doubleheader as ETBU won by a 3-0 final. For the season, Combs is batting .321 with five extra-base hits and 14 RBI. He has scored 11 runs and is 2-for-2 on stolen-base attempts.

Loson made his third outing of the season against Schreiner University in the seven-inning game on Saturday. He pitched a complete-game, one-hit shutout going all seven innings while walking three and striking out five batters. Loson did not allow a base hit until the fourth inning. In three pitching appearances thus far, he is 2-1 with a 1.29 ERA.

ETBU travels to Clarksville, Arkansas, for a three-game series against the University of Ozarks (Ark.), beginning on Feb. 26 at 2 p.m.

East Texas Baptist University’s Lacey Lindsey is the American Southwest Conference hitter of the week for the second week in a row. Lindsey recorded eight RBI in three games helping ETBU to a sweep of LeTourneau University.

Batting .400 (4-for-10) with three home runs and eight RBI, Lindsey had another stellar week at the plate. In the final game vs. LeTourneau, she broke a 4-4 tie in the top of seventh inning with a two-run home run as ETBU eventually claimed a 6-5 win In the first game of the day, she went 2-for-4 with two homers and five RBI in a 7-2 victory.

For the season, Lindsey is batting .429 with four homers and 15 RBI.

ETBU hosts the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor (Texas) for a three-game series, starting on Feb. 26 at 6 p.m.

Helping East Texas Baptist University to their biggest win in program history, Kayla Casey has been named the American Southwest Conference East Division “Player of the Week.” Casey was a key in the 7-2 victory over #23 University of La Verne as ETBU moved to 4-0 on the year.

She took out La Verne’s top player Bridget Etchegaray, 6-0, 6-4, in No. 1 singles, not allowing a set point in the first set. She helped ETBU with a doubles point taking No. 1 doubles in a hard fought, 8-6 win against their best doubles team. ETBU now has three of their four wins over ranked regional opponents.

The 4-0 start is also the best for ETBU in program history.

Batting over .600 in a three-game series, East Texas Baptist University’s All-American Lacey Lindsey has been named the American Southwest Conference Player of the Week. This is the fifth time in her career to earn the weekly award from the ASC.

Lindsey batted .625 with seven RBI in three games vs. Belhaven University and blasted her first home run of the year in the final game. She produced four RBI with a grand slam in the bottom of the 6^th inning to put ETBU back on top, 7-5. She also had two RBI in the first game of the day on Saturday and one RBI on Friday night. She was 2-of-2 in the final game with a home run and four RBI. She went to the plate nine times and never struck out and had one sac fly.

For the season, she is batting .455 with seven RBI and 11 hits. ETBU is currently 2-2 on the year and ranked fourth in the preseason NFCA Division III Poll. ETBU travels to Longview, Texas, this weekend for a series with LeTourneau.