Sept. 10, 2011
Box Score
BEAUMONT - Lamar University faced stiff competition Saturday in the MCM Elegante' Volleyball Invitational, dropping matches to Baylor and UTEP in the final day of action from McDonald Gym.
Baylor used a robust .368 attack percentage to pick up a 3-0 win (25-18, 25-12, 25-23) over the Lady Cardinals and improve to 8-2 on the season. Lamar, which will head to Houston for a non-conference match on Tuesday night, fell to 1-10 on the season.
"Set two got away from us and that really inflated their (Baylor's) attack percentage," said LU head coach Justin Gibert. "That's not the kind of team that you can fall behind. We consistently played defense, but we need to put more pressure on their serve receive."
Lamar finished the BU match with 35 kills, trailing the Bears by 10 in the category. The other huge difference in the match came at the net where Baylor finished with eight total blocks and limited Lamar to just one, a solo block by Christina Hobbs.
The Lady Cardinals finished with a 7-2 advantage in service aces, getting two apiece from setter Alex Morford and outside hitter Sierra Whittaker.
Defensively, Lamar was led by junior libero Angel Colyar with a season-high 22 digs. Colyar added 20 digs in the UTEP match on her way to being named Lamar's lone representative on the all-tournament team.
"Angel is giving us a lot of leadership, and really stepped up her play this weekend," said Gibert. "She did a great job of getting to a lot of balls and putting pressure on the other team to continue to work."
Sophomore outside hitter Megan McStravick put down nine kills to lead Lamar, while Whittaker finished with eight and Cynthia McCollum and Wendy Krell added seven each.
Jeane Horton and Xitlali Herrera each put down 14 kills in Lamar's first match on Saturday to lead UTEP to a 3-0 (25-14, 25-20, 25-23) victory over the Lady Cardinals.
BU middle blocker Torri Campbell led the Bears' attack with 13 kills on 22 attacks for an impressive .591 attack percentage. The Bears also got nine kills and five blocks from Alyssa Dibbern, while Allison King finished with 22 digs.
In the early match, the Miners' offense was clicking on all cylinders as UTEP finished with 49 kills and a .307 attack percentage. Lamar was not so fortunate. The Lady Cardinals managed just 29 kills in the three-set match, and hit an anemic .109 as a team.
UTEP cruised to a 25-14 win in the first set before Lamar battled back to make the match closer. The Miners pulled out the second set 25-20, and closed the match with a 25-23 win in the third, scoring the final two points to break a 23-23 deadlock.
Offensively, the Lady Cardinals got a team-high nine kills from Whittaker. McCollum added six kills against the Miners.
Xitlali Herrera and Jeane Horton each finished with 14 kills for UTEP, with Bridget Logan adding 12. The trio combined for 40 of the Miners' 49 kills in the match. Stephanie Figueroa led UTEP with 19 digs.
LAMAR
