BOX SCORE

AUSTIN, Texas --- The Tornados lost game one, but rallied behind 17 kills from Amanda Affolter and an energetic student body crowd to beat Howard Payne by scores of 16-25, 25-21, 25-23, 29-27 to claim their first American Southwest Conference victory Thursday night.

The victory brings Concordia's record to 3-7, 1-3 ASC while the loss drops Howard Payne  to 7-6, 0-4 ASC. 

Thursday night did not start off memorable for the Tornados, but just two hours later over 200 CTX students were on the floor celebrating Concordia's first home victory of 2010.The Tornados played with an air of confidence not seen this year as they took a much needed step toward their ASC goals. 

It was all HPU in set one as the Yellow Jackets went on a 8-0 run to give them a 16-9 advantage and eventually cruised to a 25-16 victory.

In set two both teams traded points early on until Amanda Affolter and Kevyn Jackson picked up back to back kills to give CTX a 14-11 advantage. Concordia made it 21-18 on a Kalynn White kill and after a missed serve Affolter delivered three huge ace serves that sealed the match and put the crowd of CTX students on their feet.

Jessie Elaban and Alison Pringle delivered kills in set three to give CTX a 17-15 lead. Howard Payne answered back quickly as Tamika Heline delivered two of her team-high 15 kills to put HPU out in front 18-17. At this point it was clear a young Concordia team was growing up quickly as freshmen Sammy Ladewig and Jessie Mundfrom made key plays down the stretch  to cap off the 25-22 victory .

Rallies turned long in set four as teams traded points until eventually Howard Payne would see game point with a 24-22 lead. The Tornados would not allow their home fans to wait one more game as CTX rallied back to tie the score and shortly after Amanda Affolter finished the match in high fashion, slamming home a cross-court winner to seal the 29-27 victory.

It wasn't until 30 minutes after the match that the excitement from the fans died down enough to see the home crowd leave the gym floor. Head coach April Birdsong commented after the game that "there is no way we could have any better fans than the ones who supported Concordia tonight, and I can't wait to see the next big step this team takes in the near future."

Affolter led the way for CTX offensively collecting 17 kills and recording eight ace serves. Jessie Elaban had 10 kills on only 21 swings while Kevyn Jackson netted a double-double with 10 kills and 15 digs. Sammy Ladewig came in to dish out 14 assists and record eight digs.

For the Yellow Jackets it was Tamika Heline leading the way recording 15 kills and 19 digs. Setter Amer Cantu-Curry picked up 31 assists in the loss.

The victory now puts Concordia in fourth place in the ASC West Division and allows their post-season vision to become much clearer as they head into the ASC Crossover Challenge next week.

The Tornados will be off until next Tuesday as they host Schreiner University in an ASC West match-up. Game time is scheduled for 7:00 p.m in Austin.