SHERMAN, Texas - McMurry jumped out early, and then had to grit out a victory Friday afternoon against Southwestern Assemblies of God in five sets. McMurry defeated SWAGU 25-27, 20-25, 16-25, 25-20, 15-13 and then went on to sweep Texas College 25-12, 25-19, 25-16 at the Austin College Classic.

After taking the first set handily, the Lions stormed back to take sets two and three. Then, in set four, SWAGU appeared to be headed towards a match win leading 18-11, but two underclassmen for McMurry helped changed the momentum in a hurry.

“Kasi Conners came up with a huge solo block against a player we were having trouble stopping, but she took down one of her attacks, which fired us up,” said head coach Cammie Petree. “Bennie Smith followed with an amazing kill and that one-two punch took them out of their game and we gained confidence from there.”

McMurry followed by outscoring the Lions 14-2 in the last 16 points of the fourth set before edging SWAGU 15-13 in the deciding set.

M.J. Vickers recorded a double-double with 12 kills and 13 digs. Mandie Moore added 10 kills while Smith and Terah Brown tallied eight apiece. Sarah Anding led McMurry with 26 digs, Jasmine Qualls paced McMurry's .210 hitting effort with 26 assists and Moore had six total blocks with three solo efforts.

Against Texas College, Bailey Marcum had a double-double with 11 digs and 10 kills, and McMurry continued its balanced offensive effort with Brown, Smith and Vickers all recording eight kills apiece. Vickers led that charge with just one attack error and a .410 hitting percentage. Qualls had 13 assists and McMurry hit .230 against the Steers to move to 2-3 on the season.

McMurry will face Austin College at Noon and NCAA Division I New Orleans at 4 p.m.