BEAUMONT – Nicole Parish had a career day Saturday, but Stephen F. Austin recovered from a slow start and took control of a match it won 3-1 (25-23, 16-25, 17-25, 20-25) over the Lamar University volleyball team in Southland Conference action at McDonald Gym.
 
Parish nearly doubled her previous career high in kills when she finished the match with 19 kills and a .275 hitting percentage for Lamar (13-10, 3-6 Southland Conference). She led all players in kills, and Chelsea Grant added 12 kills on a .474 attack percentage.
 
SFA improved to 16-11 overall and 8-3 in Southland Conference play.
 
Lamar started the match firing in the first set and hit for a .382 percentage with a 16 kills, which it also had in set three, and only three errors. It also never surrendered the lead, although the Ladyjacks were able to tie it seven times, and the Cardinal lead never grew more than four (18-14).
 
The final tie of the game was at 23-23 after LU served up an error, but kills from Grant and Parish ended the set at 25-23.
 
The second set started much like the first, but with 12-11 Lamar advantage both teams opened a long rally that ended with Makenzee Hanna earning a kill on an assist from Shannon Connell to make it 12-12, and from there the Jacks went on a 12-3 run.
 
A five-point run did in Lamar and turned a 17-16 score in to a 22-16 deficit. On that run, SFA had two kills (Jordan McArdle) and Lamar had three errors that gave up points to it. From there, Big Red could not get any closer. To get the 17-16 score, the Cardinals already had to overcome a big deficit with a 5-3 run. Grant, Autumn Taylor and Alaina Dock (2) had kills in the run.
 
Carlyn Stella, who earned her first start since a match at Rice on Sept. 1, had nine kills and Cortney Moore had eight. Alaina Dock finished with six kills and only one error in 13 attacks.
 
Haley Morton accounted for 30 assists and Ashley Ellis had 25. Morton tied for the game-lead in digs at nine with Nicole Parish and Erin Pequeno.
 
Hanna and Jacque Allen led the Jacks in kills at 15 and 13, respectively. Connell had 44 assists and OJ Olson finished with 17 digs, one away from notching her 2,000^th.
 
The match ended a four-match homestand for LU, which now heads on the road for five straight.  First on the trip is Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Thursday at 6:30 followed by Houston Baptist two mornings later at 11 o'clock.