HOUSTON – Down 2-0, the Lamar University volleyball mounted a fabulous comeback bid, but it fell just short in a 21-19 fifth-set loss it is 3-2 defeat (20-25, 26-28, 25-13, 25-22, 19-21) at Houston Baptist Saturday in Southland Conference action at Sharp Gym.
 
Neither Lamar (13-12, 3-8 Southland Conference) nor Houston Baptist (15-12, 7-5) had a lead larger than one in the fifth until the set was final at 21-19. Cortney Moore, Murielle Hlavac, Carlyn Stella and Autumn Taylor all had phenomenal fourth sets with four kills apiece, and led an offensive attack that 18 kills for its 19 points.
 
HBU had match point four times (including the clincher) and Lamar three times. In an exciting environment for both teams, Kayla Armer gave the Huskies a 20-19 advantage, and a LU attack error ended it.
 
Down 2-0, Lamar answered the call right out of the locker room during the intermission and dominated the third set. Two service aces from Stella and kills from Stella and Chelsea Grant had LU with a 5-0 lead.  A service error snapped that run, but LU responded with an eight-point run that ran the score to 14-2.
 
A block by Moore and Autumn Taylor opened the run, and after Taylor's kill Moore joined with Murielle Hlavac for another rejection. Server Kelly Crow aced Bailey Banks, and Moore added another kill before LU ended the run with another service error.
 
"That is kids standing in the huddle telling their teammates they can't relax or let the other team up," said Edwards. "It's good to see that.  You got to have leadership and you have to have kids that will take that on themselves."
 
The final run of the set was a 6-1 run for a 20-4 lead. Taylor recorded a kill to open it, and blocks for Hlavac, Moore and Alaina Dock gave LU two more.  Moore recorded a kill before an error gave HBU its lone point, and then she finished off the run with another kill and solo block.
 
Lamar led the fourth set throughout with the exception of two ties.  Just like in the third set, LU was out to a 4-0 lead, but unlike the third, three of the points were on attack errors from HBU.  Autumn Taylor had the lone kill of the opening run.  From there the Huskies tightened up to make it 5-5, and other than a five-point lead at 15-10 (largely due to a 4-1 LU run), the game remained tight throughout.
 
It was a tight late in the second set, but the Huskies were able to jump out to an early lead at 7-3.  They were able to hold that four-point advantage 12-8, but that is when the Cardinals began to rally back and would eventually push it to a 19-19 tie.
 
"We started rolling a little too late to win the second set," said Edwards. "But it all started about halfway through the set.  We've been asking a few kids to step up and lead a little bit, and they are finally doing that. We had a couple of runs and really started to have it rolling, but we just got going too late."
 
Tied at 20-20, HBU ran off two-straight points to make it 22-20, but Lamar responded to make it 23-23.  From there, neither team was able to sustain three-straight points until the Huskies got two-straight kills to win the set 28-26.
 
During the sideout run from 23-23, Cortney Moore slammed home a kill followed by one from HBU's Bailey Banks. The Huskies took the advantage 25-24 on Kayla Armer's kill, but Big Red got another point on a service error. Wooten's attack error moved the Cards out to 26-25, but HBU would finished off the set from there.
 
The first set only had one tie and one lead change, the tie was at 1-1. Houston Baptist jumped out to a 19-11 advantage, but Lamar responded with a 5-1 run to make it 20-16.
 
Lamar was led by Cortney Moore, who tied Jessica Wooten as the game's leader, on 19 kills and a .432 hitting percentage.  She finished the match with only three kills in 37 swings. Joining her with a double-digit kill count was Carlyn Stella (15) and Murielle Hlavac (12), both career highs, and Autumn Taylor (11).
 
"You look at today with confidence, you had people Carlyn Stella with a big day.  Murielle Hlavac and Haley Morton both had big days too, and those are all young kids," said Edwards.
 
Morton had 23 assists and 15 digs in the match for her sixth double-double of the season. Ashley Ellis led the Cards with 31 assists and Lauren Stahlman 22 digs. Ellis recorded 10 digs as well as Carlyn Stella, both were their first double-doubles of the season.
 
"One of the things we focus on a lot is bringing that kind of energy, emotion and dedication in what you're doing, every day," said Edwards. "This is the first time since I've been here that we've been able to get that kind of investment of throughout that kind of match.
 
"I'm a firm believer that you have to be in that kind of match before you can win it," said Edwards. "We did a great job of putting ourselves in position to win."
 
Lamar will return to action on Tuesday when it heads to Stephen F. Austin for a rematch with the Lumberjacks.  It finishes its five-match road swing on Thursday at New Orleans and Saturday at Southeastern Louisiana.