Sept. 26, 2009
Box Score
Lauren Holdorff led a balanced attack as Lamar defeated Sam Houston State, 3-1, at McDonald Gym in the home opener Saturday.
While Holdorff finished with 13 kills, middle blockers Jayme Bazile and Wendy Krell had 10 each and combined for half of Lamar's eight team blocks. Bazile had six block assists on her own.
Kaci Brewer added nine kills and 12 digs, while Adrianne Meengs handed out 45 assist to go along with her nine kills, three block assists and two aces.
Lamar (6-7, 1-1 Southland) also had 11 aces, including four from Genevieve Gladle. Kaleigh Wright and Bailey Smith shared time at the libero and on the back row as they combined for 35 digs.
"I think we played real strong today," head coach Justin Gibert said. "I think the way the third and fourth sets went showed a little bit of our lack of maturity. We do have tremendous capacity to play at a very high level and our home fans got a chance to see that."
Lamar came out in dominating fashion as it claimed the first set 25-15. After SHSU went up 5-4, Lamar took the lead on a Holdorff kill and Brewer ace. LU never trailed the rest of the set and hit .389.
The Lady Cards didn't allow the Bearkats to get into a rhythm in the second thanks to a 6-0 run to open things up. LU never trailed in the set despite SHSU cutting the margin to one on two occasions, the last being at 19-18. From there, LU scored four-consecutive points before ending the set on a Bazile-Meengs block for the 25-21 win.
SHSU had its best set in the third as the Bearkats hit .581 en route to a 25-22 win. Despite their high percentage, Lamar hit .387 and forced eight ties and was part of two lead changes.
The final set was even closer than the third with 12 ties and five lead changes, but it was a 4-0 run midway through that helped swing the momentum to the home team. The Bearkats tied it at 22-22 and 23-23, however a hitting error and a Cardinal block by bazile and Holdorff seale the win for Big Red.
Lamar improved to 22-3 all-time at McDonald Gym with the win.
SHSU, who dropped to 8-10 overall and 1-1 in the SLC, was led by 16 kills from Carli Kolbe and 15 from Anna Ferguson. Kolbe also had 15 digs.
The Lady Cards will return to action next weekend when they welcome UT Arlington and Texas State to town for matches and Friday at 7 p.m. and Saturday at 3 p.m.
