BEAUMONT - Tuesday night was a special night at McDonald Gym for the Lamar University volleyball team, and most of it had to do with more off the court than on it.

"Fifteen years," said head coach Alan Edwards with a thought-filled pause. "It's about the kids that you get to coach and it's about watching them grow as people and as athletes. I'm overwhelmed by tonight, and it's going to take me a while to recover."

It all started with Lamar's need for a win to push its home record to a perfect 9-0 during the 2015 campaign, but also a need to keep pace in the Southland Conference Tournament race against a Sam Houston State squad that sat in fourth place heading into the match. It took five sets to do it, but LU (13-7, 3-3 Southland Conference) was able to pull out the victory, 3-2 (25-22, 21-25, 25-17, 22-25, 16-14).

Also during the match, Lamar was hosting its "Green Out" in honor of Autumn Taylor's dad, Steve, and to help raise awareness and money for Renal Cell Carcinoma. Senior setter Jenna Jackson had to miss most of the match due to a pinning ceremony that honored completion of her work in nursing school. Jackson show did not show up to the match until the fourth set, but was at the front of the bench cheering on her teammates during the clincher.

After all was done and the Cardinals finished their fight through an intense fifth set, the team huddled around Taylor who was then proposed to by her now-fiancé and current LU football player Tate Smith.

Her proposal was just a seal on the very intense day for her, but Taylor led the Cardinals with 16 kills in the match and had a .302 hitting percentage with an assist and nine digs. It was her serve that took the Bearkats (10-11, 4-3 SLC) out of system which caused an attack error that locked the win for Lamar.

"She had a lot of family in. I told her after the match that a year ago I would have never imagined it, but when we sided out in the end and Autumn went to serve, I knew the match was in the bag," said Edwards. "I had no doubt and no question in my mind. For that kid to step into that role and have the night she had, I'm just really glad she's on our team.

"When she makes up her mind to get it done, it's going to get done," he said.

With Taylor's 16, four Cardinals had 10 or more kills in the match. Cortney Moore had 15, Chelsea Grant had 13 and Murielle Hlavac rounded it out with 10. Moore had a team-high .448 hitting percentage and Grant a team-high seven total blocks, which notches her 10^th on the all-time blocks list at Lamar.

LU jumped out to a 6-2 lead early in the clinching set, but a six-point rally surged the Bearkats (10-11, 4-3) to an 8-6 advantage. After a kill from Moore ended Brooke White's service, Hlavac served up a service ace followed by a service error; her error left the match at 9-8, Sam Houston.

Taylor tied it at 9-9 with a kill. Back-to-back Bearkat kills made it 11-9, but Taylor ended that run as well to hand it off to Haley Morton on the endline. Morton served up four straight points to push it to 14-11, but Sam Houston responded with three of its own to tie it again at 14-14. Grant crushed a kill home to set up Taylor's service to win it

"We can burn through a five-point lead faster than any team in America. We have got to develop a mentality to finish a team off," said Edwards. "It's just a part of the process of a team growing. Looking at them tonight in the fifth set, there was such a difference in their eyes in that set. They were very self-assured and were confident about where it was going to go.

"Hopefully we can take a step forward from it," he said. "It's all just a part of the process, and it's the painful part of it because the only answer is time. You just hope it happens for kids like Cortney Moore. You want those steps taken before a kid like that graduates."

McDonald Gym played in Lamar's advantage once Taylor's kill hit the floor to make it 14-11, and despite the three-point run from Sam Houston, the volume just increased when it was snapped by Grant's kill to make it 15-14.

"I can't say enough about the crowd in McDonald Gym. It is a special place to play," Edwards said emphatically. "I've never been in a place like that. I've never felt a crowd pick you up and get you over a hurdle like that crowd does.

"I'm unbelievably happy that I get to coach in that place," he said.

Dating back to the 2014 season, LU has won 11 of its last 12 in the arena, and is perfect through nine games for the first time since 2008. Under Edwards, the Cardinals are 14-3 in McDonald.

LU had fabulous sets in the first and third, but could never follow them up with good sets to seal it early. In the first games, LU hit for a .462 average (14 kills, two errors) and sided out at 78 percent, but followed that with a .143 hitting second set.

In the third set, LU had no attack errors and had a .467 hitting percentage and 72 percent sideout percentage, but that was followed by a .171 hitting mark in the fourth.

"We weren't very good in the second set, but clawed our way back into it for a chance at it, but we were nine points out of it at one point," said Edwards. "I am very happy with our performance in one, three and five, but we need to figure out where we went in the second and fourth."

As a team, LU had a .303 hitting percentage as a team, and Amy Hollowell (3) and Morton (2) contributed kills to the cause. Morton also set a new career-high with 49 assists in the match. Lauren Stahlman led the way with 22 digs.

The Cardinals will try to keep their home streak going on Thursday when the faceoff with Central Arkansas at 7 o'clock. That match is the second of a four-contest home stand at McDonald before a five-match road swing follows.

During the UCA contest, LU will continue to raise money for RCC by selling the green shirts that LU warmed up in before Tuesday's match. The shirts cost $20 and all proceeds will go to research for the cancer.


More Quotes from Alan Edwards:
On Jenna Jackson's pinning ceremony
"Jenna is one of the first kids that decided to come here after I got the job. For her to get into nursing school and do as well as she has done, that is just a special kid to me. We've been through a lot together, and she has done a lot to grown the program."

On Autumn Taylor's night
"With everything that Autumn Taylor has been through and how close I feel to and love that family. They have taken me in personally and have been so supportive of what we're doing here. Watching Autumn when her dad was sick and when he passed away, watching that kid deal with things that none of us ever want to deal with. Having the opportunity to coach a person of that caliber, not just a player of that caliber is special. She went out and hit .302 in a five-set match, and that is a big-time performance. Autumn's mom has told me that they consider me to be a part of their family, and I'm unbelievably proud of that and the strength that the family has shown through the passing of Autumn's dad. That family is tightly knit group."