Aug. 28, 2007
Box Score
BEAUMONT - The Lamar University volleyball team christened McDonald Gym with a 3-1 win over Louisiana Lafayette Tuesday night to improve to 3-1 on the season.
The Lady Cardinals took early command of the match, jumping out for a 30-20 win in game one and posting a 30-26 win in game two. The Ragin' Cajuns however would not go down quietly, as they bounced back to take the third game 30-25.
Holding onto a 2-1 lead, the Lady Cardinals and Louisiana Lafayette battled back and forth in game four. Lamar opened a four point margin at 20-16, but ULL closed to within one point at 24-23 and the two teams traded points until LU closed out the match in with a 30-28 win.
"It feels good to win our first one at home," Said head coach Justin Gibert. "The atmosphere in McDonald Gym is going to be fantastic, we just need to get used to playing in this environment. I thought we didn't have the intensity we had at Rice last weekend, but we played well enough to win and we're getting valuable experience. We're really exploring the depth of this team and that will make us dangerous as the season goes on.
The Lady Cardinals were led offensively by sophomore Kaci Brewer who posted her third straight double-double of the season with 22 kills and 13 digs while hitting .327. Meagan Adams also had a solid knight for LU, pounding out 12 kills, while setters Adrianne Meengs and Ashley Todd passed out 40 and 16 assists respectively.
"Kaci and Meagan really stepped up tonight," Gibert said. "They both had good nights offensively and Kaci really stepped up defensively picking up her third double-double of the year."
Louisiana Lafayette was led by Aime Goodwin's 14 kills and 14 digs while Elizabeth Inman who added 12 kills. Ragin Cajun setter Kendra Hall controlled the Lafayette offense with 36 assists while Erika Castro and Lindsay Brown had 16 and 11 digs respectively.
As a team the Lady Cardinals posted a .252 hitting percentage, while holding the Ragin' Cajuns to .130. Another key factor to LU's victory was their 10 team blocks, while Lafayette posted just three.
The Lady Cards will be back in action this weekend when they head to Lubbock, Texas for the Texas Tech tournament. Lamar will take on SMU, Texas Tech and Villanova at the tournament.
