BROWNWOOD, Texas — The Howard Payne University volleyball team celebrated Senior Day with a 3-1 victory over McMurry University on Saturday at the Brownwood Coliseum, winning 25-11, 29-27, 16-25, 25-19. 

The Yellow Jackets improved to 10-4 overall and 1-3 in American Southwest Conference play with the victory, securing their first win in the division. McMurry fell to 4-9 overall and 0-2 in conference play.

Howard Payne came out strong in the opening set, jumping out to an 8-1 lead. The Yellow Jackets continued to control the set and closed it out, 25-11, taking an early 1-0 lead in the match. HPU recorded 11 kills in the opening set while holding McMurry to a -.048 hitting percentage.

The second set provided the closest battle of the afternoon. The teams traded leads throughout the frame, with eight ties and three lead changes. McMurry held a 24-23 advantage before HPU answered. The Yellow Jackets eventually took a 28-27 lead before closing out the set, 29-27, to take a 2-0 advantage.

McMurry responded in the third set, building a lead midway through the frame before taking the set 25-16 and cutting the HPU lead to 2-1.

The Yellow Jackets answered in the fourth set, building an early 8-2 advantage. McMurry cut the lead to three at 19-16, but HPU responded with six of the final nine points to secure the 25-19 set victory and the 3-1 match win.

"It was a full team effort tonight and I'm proud that we got the monkey off our back and got our first conference win." Head Coach Amy Farber Teal said.
Tara Bennett led the Yellow Jackets with 10 kills, while Sam Torres added nine. Londynn Whitworth recorded six kills and four total blocks, including three solo blocks. Emma Rosier finished with 16 assists, while Addison Roden recorded 14 assists in three sets.

The match also marked a milestone for senior Abby Henderson, who recorded her 100th career kill. Henderson finished the match with four kills on eight attacks without an error, hitting .500.
As a team, Howard Payne finished with 43 kills, 38 assists, 79 digs and eight total blocks.

Following the match, Howard Payne honored its five seniors — Henderson, Madai Suarez, Chloe Waller, Baylee Burns and Roden — as part of Senior Day.
"I'm really proud of the senior class, because they have really bought into the culture change and were hungry to have a different experience here at Howard Payne," Farber Teal said. "Without their leadership and desire to want to make the program better, we wouldn't have been as successful as we have been."

UP NEXT: Howard Payne will continue their conference play at the Coliseum in Brownwood, Texas against Schreiner University. The match will take place on Saturday, October 8, at 6:00 PM CT.