Box Score

BROWNWOOD, Texas – In 2009, McMurry opened conference play losing in three sets to Howard Payne in Brownwood, however, Tuesday night at Brownwood Coliseum, McMurry gained revenge with a 22-25, 25-21, 25-15, 25-16 victory over the Yellow Jackets to begin American Southwest Conference play.

Terah Brown recorded a season-high 12 blocks and added 10 kills to help lead McMurry, and she hit .250 for the match. Bennie Smith led McMurry with 11 kills and Bailey Marcum chipped in with 10. Despite hitting just .168 as a team for the match, McMurry closed out strong hitting .229 in the third set and .314 in the final set.

It was looking a little too familiar for McMurry to start the match when Howard Payne jumped out and took set one 25-22, however the visitors rebounded and controlled the match for the remainder of the contest.

“They just have to get used to the lighting, the whole environment is disturbing at times, it's a lot different than our gym,” said head coach Cammie Petree of the dim lit Brownwood Coliseum. “After they got used to it, they were warmed up and ready to play and they took care of business. We eliminated hitting errors, we kind of had a lack of execution in the first game and they just finally started to click.”

Brown had three solo blocks and nine assisted blocks for the second-highest blocking total of her career. Last season, she posted 14 against Stevens Institute of Technology.

“She just stepped it up and that's her best game so far this season and I'm very glad she brought it tonight because we needed her,” said Petree of the senior Brown.

In the second set, the match went back and forth with McMurry eventually building a 17-13 lead. However, the Yellow Jackets scored four of the next five points to cut the lead to one point at 18-17. McMurry countered with four of the next five to extend the lead to 23-18 before taking the set 25-21.

McMurry jumped out to an 11-4 lead in set three, and the closest HPU got was within five points of the lead at 12-7. However, from there, McMurry outscored the Yellow Jackets 13-8 to take a two sets to one advantage.

Howard Payne kept the match close in the fourth and deciding set tying the score at 10 apiece. However, from there, McMurry scored nine of the next 12 and jumped out 19-13 before closing out with 25-16 win.

In the digs category, McMurry accomplished a rare feat with five players with double-digit digs. Marcum led with 17, Sarah Anding had 16, Jasmine Qualls had 14 along with 32, Bennie Smith had 13 and M.J. Vickers had 11.

McMurry moves to 4-4 on the season and will continue ASC West play Friday night with a match against Texas Lutheran at 6 p.m. at Kimbrell Arena.