CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – A tough week lies ahead for the Lamar University volleyball team when it opens a five-match road swing at league frontrunner Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at 6:30 on Thursday before a match at Houston Baptist Saturday morning at 11:00.
HBU (13-12, 5-5 Southland Conference), which enters this week's league play after a midweek win over Texas Southern, sits fifth in the Southland Conference standings. Corpus Christi (22-4, 10-0) has not lost a league match all season nor has it lost one at home. The Islanders enter with a 12-match win streak on the line.
Offensively, Corpus Christi is led by Ivy Baresh, who averages 3.28 kills per set on a .232 hitting percentage. Brittany Gilpin, who also leads the team at 0.74 blocks a set, tops the Islanders with a .383 attack percentage and owns 2.58 kills a set. Two-time reigning Southland Conference Player of the Week Kate Klepetka leads the league with 6.09 digs a set.
Last season, Corpus Christi swept the Cardinals (13-10, 3-6) in the two-match series they played in league action last season, and have won the last six the two programs have played. The all-time series advantage belongs to LU 13-8 and even the series at Dugan Wellness Center is owned by Lamar, 6-5.
For HBU, Jessica Wooten is its top player offensively (3.18 kills per set) and defensively (2.74 digs per set). She has a .198 hitting percentage for the season, and leads Bailey Banks, who has a 2.37 kills per set mark. Including Wooten, five Huskies average better than two digs a set, and Allison Doeriinghaus ranks third in the league, first for HBU, with 1.12 blocks a contest.
The series between LU and HBU is split 5-5 and 2-2 at Sharp Gym. Last season each team won the match on its home floor, 3-0 in each.
Lamar is on a three-match skid, tied for the longest it's been on this season. After winning six of seven from Sept. 18-Oct. 3, Big Red has dropped five of its last six.
Despite the tough stretch of late, Lamar has seen bright spots. Junior outside hitter
Nicole Parish had a career day against Stephen F. Austin, its last match out, when she crushed 19 kills in four sets. That bested her previous mark of 10 (a five-set match). Sophomore setter
Haley Morton notched a career-high 49 assists in five sets against Sam Houston State on Oct. 13, which gave her the second 40-assist match of her career. (44 at Incarnate Word, Oct. 10).
Lamar has relied on hits freshmen this season with 22 starts split between them, not including
Erin Pequeno's start at libero against SFA.
Tomar Thomas started 11 matches before she fell to a season-ending injury,
Ivette Dim has started five matches and
Murielle Hlavac has seen six starts on the year.
Junior middle blocker
Chelsea Grant leads the Cardinals with a 2.87 kills per set mark and a .393 hitting percentage, which also tops the Southland Conference. Senior middle blocker
Cortney Moore, who was moved to the right side in the previous two matches, is second on the team with 2.80 kills per set.
The Cardinals play three next week starting with SFA on Tuesday at 6:30 on ESPN. The two teams squared off on Oct. 24, and the Jacks were victorious in four sets. The final leg of the road trip, and final road matches of the regular season will be in Louisiana against New Orleans (Nov. 5) and Southeastern Louisiana (Nov. 7).
