ABILENE, Texas - Howard Payne senior Samantha Mullins headed in a corner kick by Courtney Turner in the 58th minute to lift the Lady Jackets past the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor in the first round of the American Southwest Conference tournament Thursday afternoon.

After both teams played to a scoreless tie in the first half, it was HPU senior defender Samantha Mullins who headed in a Courtney Turner corner kick to give the Lady Jackets a 1-0 advatage 57:16 into the game.

Despite giving up 16 UMHB shots to HPU's 13, the Lady Jacket defense held strong turning back every UMHB attack. HPU keeper Kelsie Piland recorded two saves in the shutout victory, her sixth of the season.

Courtney Turner led HPU with six shots followed by Taylor Bicknell and Brittany Davis with two each.

UMHB ends their season at 9-5-2 overall. Howard Payne is now 10-7-1 overall under first year head coach Ben Bishop. The Lady Jackets will play the University of Texas at Tyler on Saturday at 2:00 pm in the next round of the tournament.