BROWNWOOD, Texas -- Volleyball took to the road for a two-game slate in west Texas, beginning the trip with a sweep of Howard Payne (25-15, 25-16, 25-23) at the Brownwood Coliseum on Friday evening.

LeTourneau improves to 9-9 (2-1 ASC), while Howard Payne falls to 7-5 (0-3 ASC).

Hannah Payan and Reina Lawson led the charge offensively, with Payan earning 14 kills and Lawson collecting 19 assists. Lawson is now two assists away from 2,000 for her career. Allison Smith also added three aces for the YellowJackets.

Defensively, Morgan Nix dug out 17 attacks and Nora Lockhart blocked four attacks to pace LeTourneau in those categories.

The first set was YellowJackets all the way, as a few small runs early moved LeTourneau to an 11-5 lead. Back-to-back-to-back kills from Payan were key in that stretch. Another couple of small runs later in the set propelled the YellowJackets to victory, with Yari Ortiz ending the matter with a kill to make the final score 25-15.

The second set was not much closer, as the YellowJackets leaped to an 8-3 advantage early and then added another 5-0 run later in the set, which allowed LeTourneau to cruise to victory the rest of the way. A kill from Payan and an attack error forced by the defense gave the YellowJackets a commanding 2-0 set advantage via a 25-16 win.

LeTourneau had to keep fighting, however, as Howard Payne would not go away quietly. The YellowJackets seemed to gain the clinching advantage with a run late that gave them a 23-17 lead, but Howard Payne later closed that gap to 24-23. Payan allowed the set to go no further, however, taking a Grace Talkington set and placing an attack out of reach of the defense to win the match by a 25-23 score.

Tara Bennett led Howard Payne with 11 kills and nine digs and Jolee Van Dyke added 12 assists to head up that category.

UP NEXT

The YellowJackets finish their weekend road trip with a match in Abilene against ASC foe Hardin-Simmons at 12 p.m.

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