Box Score

BROWNWOOD, Texas – The Howard Payne University Yellow Jackets gave McMurry University all it could handle but the War Hawks kept their nine-match win streak alive and won the American Southwest Conference opener for both teams at Brownwood Coliseum Tuesday night. The War Hawks took the match 25-22, 17-25, 17-25, 25-21, 15-6.

M.J. Vickers and Bailey Marcum fresh off ASC Player of the Week honors led McMurry with 17 and 10 kills respectively. Vickers hit .294 and added nine digs while Marcum led the team with 20 digs. Kasi Conners had three of her four kills in the final set and led the War Hawks with five total blocks. McMurry had nine blocks as a team. Stephanie Henry added seven kills for McMurry.

McMurry edged the Yellow Jackets in the first set 25-22 before the home team evened the match with a convincing 25-17 win in the second set. Howard Payne carried that momentum in the third set; McMurry trailed 14-12 before the Yellow Jackets closed on an 11-5 run to take a 2-set-to-1 advantage.

The War Hawks fought back after a close fourth set that saw the score knotted at 20. However, M.J. Vickers had two kills, Brandi Barber added another, Kayla Hines had a block and HPU recorded an attack error as McMurry outscored the Yellow Jackets 5-1 in the last six points to force the fifth and deciding set by a score of 25-21.

From there, McMurry dominated the fifth set thanks to three kills and three total blocks from Kasi Conners and three more kills from Vickers. The War Hawks took the final set 15-6 and took five of the last six points.

McMurry (9-0, 1-0) heads to Alpine to play Sul Ross State Saturday. Howard Payne fell to 4-5 overall and 0-1 in league play.