SAN ANTONIO, Texas. – The Gustavus Adolphus College volleyball team battled the No. 4 nationally ranked East Texas Baptist University Tigers in the Trinity National Invitational on Friday afternoon in the Gusties opening match of the 2026 fall season. Gustavus leaped out to a 2-0 lead against the top-four ranked Tigers, but ETBU staved off the upset by rallying to win the final three sets as the Gusties fell 3-2.
Gustavus showed that they could compete with the national powerhouse Tigers right out the gate in the opening set. The Gusties and Tigers battled neck-and-neck through the first set with neither team able to build a lead greater than two points until the final stretch. With ETBU leading 21-19, Gustavus caught fire and won six points in a row, capped off by a
Macie Malchow kill to clinch the opening set 25-21.
The Tigers bit back in the opening points of the second set, stringing together a six-point run of their own to take an early 9-3 lead over the Gusties. Eight of the next 10 points, however, went Gustavus' way as the Gusties climbed back to tie the set 11-11. Again the two teams traded points until the Tigers took a three-point lead up 17-14. Gustavus answered with a four-point run to take their first lead of the set up 18-17. ETBU took a 23-21 lead late in the set, but the Gusties rallied with a four-point run to steal the set 25-23 and go up 2-0 over the No. 4 nationally ranked Tigers.
East Texas Baptist started to rally in the third set. Leading 17-15 over Gustavus midway through the set, the Tigers then won the next five points to go up 23-16. ETBU closed out the third set with a 25-17 victory to take their first set of the match.
In the fourth, the Gusties flew out the gate to a big 8-2 lead over the Tigers. However, East Texas Baptist started to rally. Trailing Gustavus 20-18 late, the Tigers caught fire for a four-point run to take a 22-20 lead in the set. The two teams traded points to a 24-23 lead for ETBU, who then clinched the set-winning point to even the match up at 2-2.
The Tigers took a 7-4 lead early in the decisive fifth set, but the Gusties rallied to tie it up at 7-7. Gustavus took a 9-8 lead, but then ETBU won three consecutive points to go up 11-9. The Gusties responded in kind; winning three in a row to retake the lead up 12-11. East Texas Baptist won the next two points to to up 13-12, but
Logan Brent landed a kill to even the set up at 13-13, giving Gustavus the serve and bringing the Gusties to within two points of upsetting the No. 4 ranked Tigers. ETBU went on to take the final two points, taking the set 15-13 and the match 3-2.
Logan Brent led the Gusties' attack with 15 kills with
Greta Tompkins and
Lauren Barker following with 10 kills each.
Macie Malchow and
Sahara Morken orchestrated the offense with 23 and 20 assists, respectively.
Ava Hahn had a team-high 16 digs.
Up next for Gustavus are two more matches at the Trinity National Invitational on Saturday, September 5. The Gusties begin the day with an 11:00 a.m. match against the No. 2 Trinity University Tigers and then close out their trip to San Antonio with a 3:30 p.m. match against the Schreiner University Mountaineers.
