Box Score Nov. 6, 2014

Box Score

BEAUMONT, Texas - Chelsea Grant and Cortney Moore combined for 23 kills and a .412 hitting percentage in a 3-0 win (25-16, 25-20, 25-20) over New Orleans Thursday night in Southland Conference action at McDonald Gym.

Grant finished with 10 kills and a .562 hitting and Moore had 13 kills and a .357 percentage. Ashley Ellis topped the team with 30 assists in the match, her highest total in four matches. Lamar improved to 4-21 overall and 4-9 in league play while New Orleans fell to 6-22 overall and 0-14 in conference play.

"I was really happy with the way our middles played, and with the fact that Ashley worked that hard to get them the ball," said head coach Alan Edwards. "In the system that we run, you want to have fairly even set distributions, and we can live the numbers she had."

Grant had 16 total attacks, Moore had 28, Amethyst Hollowell finished with 22 and Autumn Taylor had 31.

The Lady Cardinal defense was also huge in the match and held UNO to a .067 hitting percentage, and the Privateeers never had above a .100 hitting percentage in any set.

"I thought we played defense pretty well. We made some good moves and I was pretty happy there," said Edwards. "All in all, a win is a win and we need to enjoy them. I'd like to see us make fewer errors, especially the kind that don't show up on the scoresheet."

As a team, Lamar had 11 total blocks, led by Ellis who finished with one solo block and five assists. Moore had four block assists and one solo and Grant finished with four assisted blocks.

Three Lady Cardinals finished with 10 or more digs, Megan Schwartz had 15, Autumn Taylor had 12 and Erika Rojas had 11.

Lamar only had 12 errors and 40 kills for a .262 hitting percentage. It had eight service errors, four service aces and four receive errors.

"We kept our error total a little lower than we had been, and that was fantastic and much needed," said Edwards. "I asked them to go get better and they did tonight.

The first set was dominant for the Lady Cardinals, who jumped out to an early 5-0 start and grew the lead to 12-4 on an attack error by Cara Sander. From there, UNO wouldn't get any closer than eight.

Taylor led the way for LU in the first set with five kills on nine attempts, and she was followed by Grant with four on six attacks.

UNO jumped out to an early lead in the second set after they made it 3-0 on an attack error by Hollowell and 5-1 on a bad set by Ellis. Lamar battled back to tie it at 7-7 on a block by Grant and Taylor.

The match was back and forth until LU took a 13-12 deficit and moved it to an 18-13 lead. Moore went on a tear in that six-point run with three kills and two assisted blocks.

LU led the Privateers 19-18 in the third set, but took over the match to run off six points to win it. Grant was the star of that run with three kills and one assisted block.

The next match for the Lady Cards will be on Saturday, Senior Day, at 1 o'clock against Southeastern Louisiana at McDonald Gym.