BELTON, Texas - SU knew they were in for a tough weekend but it turned to be even more challenging than they anticipated as all but one match went five sets. Southwestern still went 3-1 on the weekend against the top American Southwest Conference schools.

Southwestern started out strong, winning the first two sets 25-23, 25-15 against East Texas Baptist, but faltered in the third and fourth set to force a fifth. Southwestern returned to form and won the fifth set 15-11.

Allison Stubbs led offensively with 15 kills and posted a .225 hitting percentage. Chandler Lentz recorded 32 digs and Nikki Welch posted 27 assists to lead the Pirates.

SU closed day one against host school Mary Hardin-Baylor. The Pirates hit over .200 in all but one match but still were defeated in five sets, 3-2. Once again the Pirates won the first two before falling behind in the final sets.

Kaitlyn Foster led the attack with 18 kills and a .278 hitting percentage while Welch recorded 36 assists. Foster also led defensively with 24 digs and four blocks.

On day two, Southwestern worked out the kinks and won both matches. It was a dog-fight against UT Dallas to start the day as SU was held to just .142 attack percentage. Abbie Robb had a huge game, however, with a .361 attack percentage and 17 kills on 36 attempts to catapult the Pirates to a 3-2 win.

Closing out the weekend SU took down Hardin-Simmons University 3-1. The Pirates got progressively stronger as the match went on, starting out hitting .143 as a team and ending at .238. Foster led with 14 kills while Robb was close behind with 12. Lentz and Foster each had 16 digs and Olivia Drummond added three blocks.

Southwestern begins the year at 3-1 on the season. They hit the road again this weekend, traveling to Sherman, Texas to compete against Southwestern Assemblies of God, Beacon College, Wheaton and Sul Ross State.