BOX SCORE

INTERVIEW WITH HEAD COACH APRIL BIRDSONG

INTERVIEW WITH KALYNN WHITE

Austin, Texas - Kalynn White and Bianca Martinez each posted a double-double to lead the Concordia University Texas volleyball team past Howard Payne, 3-1 (21-25, 25-21, 25-23, 25-23), at the first Purple Out of the academic year on Thursday, Sept. 22 at the CTX Field House. The Tornados earned their first ASC victory of the season.

The teams played the beginning of the first set evenly with three ties, but Howard Payne (4-8, ASC 0-4) broke a 3-3 deadlock by rattling off seven straight points and 13 of the next 14 to go ahead 16-4 score. The Yellow Jackets benefited from five Tornado attacking errors while getting a combined three service aces from Tamika Heline and Kristin Hammond. Concordia, however, stormed back by scoring seven unanswered with Alison Pringle serving and racking up two service aces and a kill. Despite the attempted rally, Concordia would fall just short. After an Emma Clifford kill brought the Tornados within three for the second time at 24-21, Sarah Bishop ended it with a kill to put the Yellow Jackets ahead.

Concordia (5-5, ASC 1-3) came back and took a competitive second set that featured 14 ties and four lead changes. The teams never scored more than two consecutive points against each other until the Tornados got four in a row, capped by a Kevyn Jackson service ace, to go ahead by an 18-16 score. Trailing 21-20, Concordia scored five straight to win the set 25-21 with Pringle, Martinez and Amanda Affolter providing kills.

The Tornados scored the first two points of the third set courtesy of Martinez setting up Affolter and Chipman and never looked back. A ballhandling error by Howard Payne's Heline put the hosts up by as much as six at 16-10. The Yellow Jackets came all the way back to tie the score at 20, but the Tornados were able to break loose with straight points on kills from White, Martinez and Affolter. Chipman finished a pass from Clifford to put Concordia in the driver's seat.

Concordia was able to come out on top of a close fourth set that had 15 ties and five lead changes. Four straight Yellow Jacket attacking errors gave the Tornados a 9-6 advantage before the visitors clawed back and took three one-point leads just past the midway point of the frame. White and Clifford, however, combined for a block to give the Tornados the lead for good before kills by Chipman and Pringle on sets from Samantha Ladewig and Martinez ended everything.

Concordia was led by Martinez's 27-assist, 11-dig performance as well as White's double-double on 15 kills and 13 digs. Martinez fell just shy of a triple-double by tallying a career-high seven kills, while White also hit at a .214 clip by committing only six errors on 42 attempts. Affolter reached double-digit kills, and Jackson and Chipman added 24 and 14 digs, respectively.

Howard Payne got strong contributions from Shelby Bridges, Bishop and Hammond. Bridges notched a double-double of the assist-dig variety with 17 and 12, respectively, while Bishop had 13 kills. Hammond added 20 digs and two service aces.

Concordia will continue its three-game homestand when it hosts Sul Ross State on Saturday, Sept. 24 at 3 p.m.
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Concordia (5-5, ASC 1-3) def. Howard Payne (4-8, ASC 0-4), 3-1 (21-25, 25-21, 25-23, 25-23)