Oct. 30, 2010
Box Score
BEAUMONT - Lamar University closed out its 2010 volleyball home schedule with a bang on Saturday afternoon at McDonald Gym as the Lady Cardinals rolled over Southeastern Louisiana 3-0 to pick up an important Southland Conference victory.
The Lady Cardinals, who will play their final four regular season matches on the road, improved to 11-12 on the year and 7-5 in the SLC. The victory keeps Lamar in second place by itself in the SLC East Division. SLU, which has now lost seven straight, fell to 1-11 in conference play.
"It's nice to close the home season with a victory," said LU head coach Justin Gibert. "Playing those last four on the road will let us get used to playing away from home. We get to play at Sam Houston late in the season and then turn around and play there again for the (SLC) tournament which should help us get used to the venue."
Lamar left little doubt that it had come to play on Saturday afternoon as the Lady Cardinals opened with a 25-8 victory in the first set behind a team attack percentage of .542. Not only was Lamar clicking on offense, the Lady Cardinals limited the visiting Lions to a dismal -.040 hitting percentage and only five kills.
While SLU improved over the next two sets, Lamar was still able to close the match with 25-20 and 25-23 victories. SLU led 23-22 in the third set before LU reeled off three straight points to end the match.
"We came out really focused and then got a little sloppy in the third set," said Gibert. "Some of that goes to our youth and we need to work to maintain our focus. We are working hard on maturing and we'll be peaking at the end and should be a very scary team to face."
Sophomore middle blocker Wendy Krell, who was coming off a career-high 25 kills against Nicholls on Thursday, continued her strong play. Krell finished the match with 11 kills, a .600 attack percentage and four of Lamar's 10 service aces.
Joining Krell in dominating the middle was fellow sophomore Jayme Bazile. The 6-foot-3 Bazile also notched 11 kills while hitting .625 with four total blocks.
Lamar finished the match with a .425 attack percentage and 44 kills, and limited the Lions to only 36 kills and a .230 attack percentage. The .425 attack percentage is a season-high for Lamar and is the fifth-best mark in the SLC this season for a three set match.
SLU got 10 kills from Stephanie Mueller.
LAMAR
