BROWNWOOD, Texas - The Howard Payne University volleyball team lost their home opener in three sets to St. Mary's University (25-10, 25-9, 25-23) on Thursday evening. In front of their home crowd at the Brownwood Coliseum.

The Lady Jackets fought back valiantly in the third set and almost forced a fourth set before eventually dropping the match.  

After giving up the first two sets, 25-10, 25-9, Howard Payne used an impressive string of service aces from Analisa Azaldua to put the Rattlers on their heels. She ended up with a game high, four service aces but HPU would ultimately drop the final set 25-23 after St. Mary's rallied to close out the match. 

Analisa Anzaldua also led Howard Payne in digs with six. Shelbie Harry had seven kills and Cheyanne Lovelady added 14 assists to lead the Lady Jackets in the match.  

Howard Payne falls to 1-5 on the season and will now head back out on to the road to face off against the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor. The match is slated for a 6:00 pm start on September 16th in Belton, Texas. You can find live links on the HPUsports.com volleyball site and follow along on Twitter @HPUVBall.