GEORGETOWN, Texas -- Texas Lutheran volleyball swept Illinois Tech, 25-11, 25-18, 25-21, to open the 2024 SU Invitational hosted by Southwestern University on Friday.

Texas Lutheran (2-2) finished the match with a .309 hitting percentage, while holding Illinois Tech to an .033 hitting percentage.

Ryann Ely (Montgomery/Concordia Lutheran) led the way, matching her career-high with 10 kills and two blocks, while hitting .400 in the match. Brylie Nedd (Sealy/Sealy) finished with eight kills, five digs, a block, and a service ace.

Faith Coldewey (Floresville/Floresville) finished with a team-high 13 digs and a career-high six service aces. Julia Chew (Cypress/Cy-Fair) led the team with 16 assists while Shavonne Respondek (San Antonio/Madison) followed close behind with 15 of her own.

The Bulldogs stormed out of the gates and rolled to an emphatic 25-11 win in the opening set. Texas Lutheran was outstanding all around and was led by five service aces from senior Faith Coldewey, while hitting a match-high .385 in the set. The Bulldogs held the Scarlet Hawks to a .065 hitting percentage.

Texas Lutheran rolled their momentum right into the second set taking an early 13-7 lead. The Scarlet Hawks rallied to bring the set to 20-17 before the Bulldogs would pull away 25-18. Ryann Ely would tally four kills in the set while the Bulldogs would hold the Scarlet Hawks to a negative hitting percentage.

Illinois Tech started well in the third set - keeping the match close before taking a 13-11 advantage. The Bulldogs would rally back to take the set 25-21 and secure the sweep.

Texas Lutheran will conclude the SU Invitational on Saturday with two matches across two different venues. Texas Lutheran will face UT-Dallas at 10 AM at the Robertson Center on the campus of Southwestern University Saturday morning before traveling to Concordia University in Austin to face Pacific Lutheran at roughly 1:15 PM. All streaming and live stats links will be available on tlubulldogs.com. Saturday's second match will be the Bulldogs first match streamed on FloSports which will require a subscription to watch. More info is available here.

For more information on Texas Lutheran volleyball, follow the Bulldogs on Facebook (TLU Volleyball), X (Twitter) (@TLU_VB), and Instagram (@tlu_vb) and as always you can find updates on all Texas Lutheran athletics on tlubulldogs.com and all official TLU social media channels (@tluathletics on X (Twitter), @tlu_athletics on Instagram, and @tlubulldogs on Facebook).