LONGVIEW, Texas --
Hannah Payan and
Morgan Nix had career-high nights and the LeTourneau volleyball team rallied past Hardin-Simmons for a five-set victory (25-27, 25-23, 23-25, 25-16, 15-11) in the ASC opener on Tuesday night inside Solheim Arena.
Payan registered a double-double with a career-high 24 kills and 15 digs, while Nix collected a career-high 34 digs in the win. Payan hit a robust .457 and Nix also added a pair of rare kills for the libero.
Kaci Monk added 12 kills and a .423 hitting percentage to go with three block and seven digs for LeTourneau.
Natalie Davenport had a double-double of 25 assists and 13 digs with
Reina Lawson contributing 24 assists and nine digs.
Avery Mabery Morgan tallied seven kills and a block.
Allison Smith had a team-high four blocks.
LeTourneau (2-0, 1-0 ASC) trailed 2-1 in the match before rallying to force a fifth set. The Yellowjackets trailed 10-6 in the deciding set before Payan took over and willed the hosts back into it. Payan kills accounted for three of the final five points of the set as the Yellowjackets outscored Hardin-Simmons (3-2, 0-1 ASC) 9-1 over the final 10 points of the contest.
The match saw 34 ties and 16 lead changes throughout as the evenly matched teams opened conference play.
Hardin-Simmons took the opening set, but had to stave off a LeTourneau set point to do so. The Yellowjackets trailed for much of the first set, but stormed back and took a 25-24 lead after a Hardin-Simmons service error. The visiting Cowgirls responded and scored three straight to take the opener, 27-25.
The second set featured 15 ties and five lead changes. LeTourneau hit .333 in the frame as Payan reached double figures in kills for the match in the set.
Meghan Womack recorded back-to-back kills, two of her six on the night, to break a 23-23 tie and give the Yellowjackets the set win to even the contest.
After Hardin-Simmons eked out a 25-23 win in the third set, LeTourneau pulled away in the fourth to set up the fifth set. The Cowgirls opened up a 10-6 lead after an Alicia Becerra kill, her 11th of the night. A kill from Morgan switched the momentum to LeTourneau and Lawson followed with an ace to cut the deficit to 10-8. Womack added a kill to make it 10-9.
Down 11-9, LeTourneau scored the final six points. Payan had three kills over a four-point stretch, sandwiched around a combination block from
Allison Smith and
Jenna Curran, to give the Yellowjackets a 14-11 lead. A Hardin-Simmons attack error completed the comeback win for LeTourneau.
LeTourneau hit .223 in the match with 61 kills and out-blocked Hardin-Simmons 7-6. It was the sixth straight win for the Yellowjackets over the Cowgirls in the all-time series.
Gabby Jones and Liz Underwood had 12 kills each to lead Hardin-Simmons. Ali Meyer added 25 assists and Cali Carter totaled 28 digs.
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NIGHT
UP NEXT
LeTourneau heads to Memphis for four matches this weekend at Rhodes. The Yellowjackets play Rhodes (1 p.m.) and Huntingdon (4 p.m.) on Friday.
