Oct. 13, 2011
Box Score
NATCHITOCHES, La. - Sierra Whittaker led a trio of Lady Cardinals with at least 10 kills Thursday night, and junior setter Alex Morford picked up four service aces for the second straight match, as Lamar University picked up a key 3-1 (29-27, 25-19, 22-25, 25-23) Southland Conference volleyball victory over host Northwestern State.
The Lady Cardinals improved to 7-15 on the year, but more importantly to 5-2 in conference play as they head to Southland East Division leader Central Arkansas on Saturday. The winner of Saturday's noon match will have the lead of the East Division at the midway point in the conference race.
"We struggled a little tonight, and they served us really tough," said LU head coach Justin Gibert, now just two wins shy of 100 career coaching victories. "Our offense wasn't running as smoothly as we'd like, but we were able to step up and pull out a win even though we were struggling. I'm pretty proud of the team to get this victory."
Momentum clearly appeared to be on the side of the home team after NSU took the third set and jumped to a 15-9 lead in set four. Whittaker put away two straight kills to spark a 7-1 run by Lamar that tied the set at 16.
Lamar grabbed the lead at 18-17 on a Cynthia McCollum kill, and never trailed again. With Lamar leading 24-21, NSU (6-14, 3-5) was able to score a pair of points to pull within one at 24-23. However, a Kelly Jimenez attack error closed the match for Lamar with a 25-23 win in the fourth set.
Whittaker, who led Lamar with 17 kills, picked up seven in the final set. The redshirt sophomore finished with an impressive .382 attack percentage in helping Lamar hit a solid .274 as a team.
"Sierra came back and had a huge game four for us," said Gibert. "Without her, we don't get that win tonight. She really stepped up big time in game four and got back to playing like I know she's capable of playing."
LU finished with a 60-54 advantage in total kills, and led nearly every statistical category. Behind Morford's four service aces, Lamar enjoyed a 10-6 advantage at the service line, and also picked up a 68-58 edge in digs.
Lamar showed its resiliency from the very beginning of the match as NSU jumped out to an 18-12 advantage in the first set. The Lady Cards steadily worked their way back into the set, and with Megan Schwartz serving, tied the set at 23.
From that point, Lamar would not trail again. With the set tied at 27, Lamar got an attack error by Nicole Hajka, her only one of the match, and a kill by middle blocker Christina Hobbs to close the set 29-27.
LU would then hit .433 as a team in the second set to win 25-19 before the Lady Demons fought their way back with a 25-22 win in set three.
Sophomore outside hitter Megan McStravick, who has been giving Lamar a real offensive lift lately, finished with 13 kills and a .310 attack percentage. McCollum added 10 kills and 14 digs for the double-double.
Junior libero Angel Colyar led all players with 21 digs, while Wendy Krell finished with five total blocks to lead the Lamar defensive effort.
NSU got 21 kills and 12 digs from Stacey DiFrancesco, while Keelie Arneson led the team with 18 digs.
LAMAR
