MARSHALL, Texas – The Belhaven University volleyball team defeated Howard Payne University in four sets to claim the first match for the Blazers in the American Southwest Conference Crossover on Friday evening. The Crossover is hosted by East Texas Baptist University. With the win, the Blazers improve to 7-7 overall and 2-2 in conference play.

After the score was knotted up at 6-6 in the opening set, the Green and Gold never let the Yellowjackets get ahead in the first set as the Blazers earned the 25-23 first set victory over Howard Payne. The second set was a little different than the first. The score was 11-11 midway through the second set, until HPU tallied 10 of the next 12 points to make the score 21-13 in the second set. The Yellowjackets would go on and secure the second set by a final of 25-17.

With the score tied a 1-1, the Blazers knew that the third set was a critical set. The Blazers never let the Yellowjackets gain any momentum and dominated the set with a 25-9 victory. After the score was 5-5 in the fourth set, the Blazers took the lead and the Yellowjackets could not recover for the entire fourth set as Belhaven would claim the set 25-21 and the match 3-1.

Callista Moore and Vivian Marquez each had double digit kills, while Chelsea Creighton earned nine kills in the contest. Sydney McEachern led the team in digs with 24, followed by Kristen Fogan with 12 and Grace Laukhuf with nine.

As a team, the Blazers posted 51 kills and 13 service aces.

The Blazers will return to the court on Saturday, September 28 for the second day of the ASC Crossover in Marshall, Texas. The Green and Gold will play against the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor at 12:00 p.m. and then take on Concordia at 4:00 p.m.

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