<strong>Cynthia McCollum finished with nine kills and seven digs against the Jaguars</strong>

Volleyball 9/16/2011 12:00:00 AM

Lamar drops matches to Belmont and South Alabama

Sept. 16, 2011

NEW ORLEANS, La. - Lamar University's struggles on the volleyball court continued Friday at the Kathy Trosclair Memorial Tournament as it lost matches to Belmont and South Alabama by identical 3-0 scores.

The loss to Belmont set a new school record for consecutive losses at 11, breaking the mark of 10 set in 1982 and repeated in 1988. After falling to South Alabama in the second match, Lamar now stands at 1-13 on the season. The Lady Cardinals will take on host Tulane on Saturday afternoon at 4:30 in their final match before opening Southland Conference play.

Belmont improved to 7-6 on the year after beating Lamar by scores of 25-17, 25-12 and 25-19.

The Lady Cardinals hit a solid .256 as a team against Belmont, but could not overcome their nine service errors and a potent Bruins' attack. Belmont, led by Maggie Johnson's match-high 15 kills, ended the match with a 43-30 advantage in kills. Not only did the Bruins produce more kills, but they attacked at a sparkling .372 percentage.

Sophomore outside hitter Sierra Whittaker finished with nine kills and a .333 attack percentage. Cynthia McCollum and Wendy Krell added five kills apiece for Lamar.

Junior setter Alex Morford finished with four kills on just six attempts for the Lady Cardinals, also dishing out 16 of LU's 26 assists. Megan Schwartz chipped in with a team-high 11 digs.

In addition to Johnson's 15 kills, Belmont got nine from Allison McCoy and eight from Jen Myer. Jamie Lundstrom led all players with 13 digs.

While Lamar improved upon its serving in match two against the Jaguars (5-5), it still couldn't figure out a way to generate enough offense to avoid losing to USA for the first time in 11 tries. South Alabama finished with 49 kills and a .359 attack percentage in winning by scores of 26-24, 25-22 and 25-17.

The Lady Cardinals, on the other hand, managed just 34 kills and a .153 attack percentage. Led by Morford with three, Lamar had five service aces on the match while committing just four service errors. Morford added four kills, four digs and handed out 25 assists.

McCollum finished the match with a season-high nine kills to lead the Lady Cardinals. McCollum, who attacked at a solid .269 percentage, added seven digs in the contest.

Megan McStravick led Lamar with 10 digs, adding six kills.

The Jaguars got 11 kills and a .647 attack percentage from Maureen Ros and, 10 kills from Valerie Posczasy. Melissa Waelter and Jenna Hassell added 12 digs each.

LAMAR

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