Box Score

ABILENE – McMurry avenged an earlier loss to Howard Payne Tuesday night edging the Yellow Jackets 25-21, 25-19, 23-25, 23-25, 15-10 Tuesday night at Kimbrell Arena. Terah Brown recorded four of her 17 kills in the fifth and deciding set and three other McMurry players recorded double-digit kills to help defeat HPU.

McMurry took the first two sets and had control of the match until the Yellow Jackets fought back to take sets three and four. HPU led 22-17 in the third set, but McMurry stormed back and nearly took the victory when it knotted the score with five-straight points at 22. However, the Yellow Jackets took advantage of a service error and an attack error by McMurry and then closed the set with a kill from Megan Pick.

Then, in the fourth set, HPU led 23-17 before McMurry scored six straight to tie the score at 23. However, once again the Yellow Jackets held off the rally and took set four thanks to two consecutive kills by Amanda Gutierrez.

In the final set, the teams battled back-and-forth for the first 20 points locked in a 10-all tie. However, behind the home crowd, McMurry scored the final five points of the contest thanks to two service aces by Bailey Marcum, two kills by Terah Brown and one by Bennie Smith.

The win moved McMurry above the .500 mark for the first time since winning its season opener against Hendrix College Sept. 4. McMurry has taken five of its last six matches and moved to 9-8 overall with a 6-4 mark in the American Southwest Conference.

The Yellow Jackets swept McMurry in Brownwood Sept. 15 3-0, however, the loss drops HPU to 7-11 overall and 5-5 in league play.

Brown finished with 17 kills and six errors on 34 attacks for a .324 hitting percentage. She also had three solo blocks and five assisted blocks to help lead the defensive effort. Smith had 15 kills and hit a team-best .370. M.J. Vickers and Danielle Kelton each had double-doubles for McMurry. Vickers had 13 kills, 12 digs and five total blocks while Kelton recorded her second consecutive double-double with 12 kills and a match-high 27 digs. Sarah Anding had 18 digs defensively for McMurry.

HPU's Gutierrez led her team in the losing effort with 12 kills and Cathie Kilmartin chipped in seven with eight total blocks. Kristin Hammond led defensively with 26 digs.

HPU hit just .089 for the contest but McMurry struggled as well hitting just .143 in the one hour and 55 minute match.

McMurry will play host to the defending ASC West Division champs, Texas Lutheran Thursday night at 6 p.m. TLU defeated McMurry 3-0 Sept. 18 in Seguin.