Oct. 15, 2011
Box Score
CONWAY, Ark. - Freshman outside hitter Scout Brooks pounded down a match-high 23 kills Saturday afternoon at the Prince Center to lead Central Arkansas to a 3-1 (25-15, 25-14, 22-25, 27-25) Southland Conference volleyball victory over Lamar University.
The Lady Cardinals had their three-match conference winning streak stopped in falling to 7-16 overall and 5-3 in Southland action. UCA held on to first place in the Southland East Division, improving to 12-9 on the year with a 7-2 league record.
"Their offense was a lot better than ours today and that was the difference in the match," said LU head coach Justin Gibert. "Our blocking kept us in the match, but we've got to have better offensive numbers. They frustrated our hitters by challenging every ball we hit."
The offensive disparity was huge as UCA finished with 63 kills on a robust .278 team attack percentage. Lamar managed to hit just .176 for the match in collecting 44 kills.
After being badly outplayed in the first two sets, 25-15 and 25-14 wins by the Sugar Bears, Lamar pulled out the third set 25-22. Lamar was able to take advantage of four UCA service errors in the set while picking up three aces with no errors from the service line.
LU then looked to even the match at two sets apiece as Alex Morford picked up a service ace to put the Lady Cards ahead 24-22 in set four. Morford followed with a service error that gave the ball back to the Bears, and UCA got back-to-back kills from Brooks to break a 25-25 tie and close the match.
Megan McStravick led Lamar with 13 kills, while Sierra Whittaker added 10. Lamar got only nine combined kills from middle blockers Wendy Krell and Christina Hobbs. Hobbs did finish with two block solos and six block assists as Lamar enjoyed a 12-4 advantage in blocking.
Junior libero Angel Colyar led all players with 18 digs, while Megan Schwartz chipped in with 14 and Cynthia McCollum added 12.
UCA got a double-double from Jessica Nagy with 17 kills and 14 digs. Beth Rogers added 14 digs to match Nagy for the team lead.
Lamar will look to sweep its season series with McNeese State on Wednesday night at 7 when the Cowgirls visit McDonald Gym. Lamar won 3-1 at McNeese on Oct. 6.
LAMAR
