SAN ANTONIO – The road woes continued for the Lamar University volleyball team Saturday afternoon when the Cardinals fell 3-1 (21-25, 28-26, 22-25, 18-25) to Incarnate Word's version of the Cardinals at the McDermott Center in Southland Conference action.
Lamar fell to 12-7 on the season and 2-3 in Southland Conference play. Away from McDonald Gym, where the LU is a perfect this year, the Cardinals are 4-7, but on the opponent's floor they are 1-5. UIW ran its record to 4-11 overall and 2-4 in league play.
Incarnate Word had a dynamic day offensively, hitting for a .302 percentage and 62 kills, which was one short of the highest count against LU all season (Rice). Four UIW Cardinals had 10 or more kills on the day, led by Autumn Lockley at 20. Shaina Garza had 13 and Angelique Vidaurri and Bryaunea Hall had 11 apiece.
Lamar was led by
Chelsea Grant and
Autumn Taylor who each had 15 kills in the match. Grant hit for a .357 hitting percentage and Taylor followed with .279.
Cortney Moore had 11 kills and a .200 hitting percentage. LU's best hitting set was the second, the lone game it won.
In that set, LU's Cardinals actually had to mount a late comeback to overcome UIW. Down 23-20, Grant and Taylor worked Lamar back to a 23-23 tie, and took a 24-23 lead when
Haley Morton served up an ace. Garza halted the run with a kill, and Hall gave UIW a 25-24 lead with a kill.
The match was tied after a service error, but UIW regained the lead when Garza notched her seventh kill of the set. Grant tied it at 26-26 with her eighth kill of the set, and two attack errors from UIW ended the match. That set featured 14 ties and nine lead changes.
Haley Morton tallied a career-high 44 assists in the match and added five digs.
Lauren Stahlman had 20 digs, followed by
Nicole Parish's 10.
As a team, the Cardinals hit for a .211 percentage with 51 kills and 23 errors in 133 attacks.
The Cardinals open a four-game home stand on Tuesday when they host Sam Houston State at McDonald Gym at 7 o'clock. UCA heads to town on Thursday at 7:00. Northwestern State and Stephen F. Austin round out the home stand on Oct. 22 and Oct. 24, respectively.
