ABILENE, Texas – McMurry University women's soccer lost a tough 2-1 American Southwest Conference match at home, falling 2-1 to Howard Payne University at Wilford Moore Stadium. The loss dropped the War Hawks to 1-8 overall and 1-4 in the ASC, while the Lady Jackets improved to 3-6 on the year and 1-3 in league play.
 
HPU tallied first at the 12:54 mark of the contest, when Candace Stark found the net off of a free kick to make it 1-0. That score stood the rest of the first half as the Lady Jackets took the lead into the locker room.
 
Less than two minutes into the second stanza – at the 46:26 mark to be exact – the War Hawks were able to knot the match at 1-1. After HPU was whistled for a hand ball in the box, McM was awarded a penalty kick. Karleigh Alsip was called on to take the attempt and calmly blasted the ball past Lady Jackets goalkeeper Nicole Goodwin.
 
Unfortunately for the War Hawks, the celebration was short-lived. 27 seconds, to be exact.
 
HPU took the restart and Rachel Crane drove up the near side – beat one McM defender then crossed the ball to the front of the goal. Darby Frazier was right there to one-touch the ball past McMurry goalie Jordan Gregory for what would prove to be the match-winning goal at the 46:53 mark.
 
Howard Payne held a slight advantage in total shots, 14-12.  However, McMurry made the most of its attempts, putting nine (75 percent) directly on goal. Goodwin had eight saves for HPU, while Gregory had two stops for the War Hawks.
 
Xochilt Miranda had three shot attempts, with all three on goal. Marissa Figueroa also took three tries, with two at the net.
 
McMurry will next host UT-Dallas on Saturday (2 p.m.) at Wilford Moore Stadium.