BEAUMONT – They reacted to being down 27-26 in the third set with three-straight points, and used that to snap its eight-match skid when the Cardinals from the Lamar University volleyball team downed Houston Baptist 3-1 (25-19, 22-25, 29-27, 25-18) in Southland Conference action at McDonald Gym Thursday night.
 
Tied at 26-26 late in the third set, Blair Gillard and Sophie Zielinski blocked a Cardinal (14-15, 4-11 Southland Conference) attack to take an advantage, the first of the entire set for the Huskies (15-16, 7-8). Senior Cortney Moore responded with a kill (assisted by Haley Morton), and right after Amy Hollowell stepped to the endline and aced Bailey Banks.  The final point of the set was an attack error from HBU.
 
That momentum carried over to the clinching fourth set, in which Lamar led throughout with the exception of two ties (1-1 and 2-2). Tied at 2-2, freshman Kelly Crow took the endline and kept HBU out of system long enough to lead the Cardinals on a five-point run that consisted of kills by Chelsea Grant, Autumn Taylor, Amy Hollowell and Moore.  The other point was an attack error by Zielinksi.
 
"I thought Kelly Crow and Erin Pequeno were both really good tonight," said head coach Alan Edwards. "Both of those kids are kids I recruited to help us win a conference championship. Those kids have been able to make changes and tonight they were productive."
 
That was the longest run of the fourth set, which ended on a three-point LU run. An assisted block of Hollowell and Grant made it 23-18, a Huskie error made it 24-18 and match point was fittingly on a kill by Taylor.
 
Taylor led the entire match with 16 kills on 33 swings.  The junior only had three errors and accumulated a .349 hitting percentage; she only trailed Moore (.414) in the percentage category. Moore accounted for 15 kills in the match with three errors in 29 attacks.
 
"Autumn Taylor goes out and lights it up and hits almost .400, that's a good night for anybody," said Edwards. "We were really, really good in two pin positions and really good at one of the middle spots. That is what carried us."
 
Hollowell had seven kills in the match along with Grant, and Carlyn Stella finished with six.
 
"One of the things we talk about all the time is our team's willingness to walk out on the floor and attack somebody," said Edwards. "You have to be willing to be the aggressor for as long as it takes. Again we failed to do so in the second set, but we did it coming out of the locker room. We were great at it in the fourth set.
 
"Haley Morton did a nice job of running the offense tonight. Not just calling plays, but she made great decisions," he said. "Carlyn Stella was good on the three positions across the back."
 
Morton had 47 assists in the match and was near her eighth double-double of the season with nine digs. She tied Stella in digs, and both followed the match leader Lauren Stahlman (24). As a team, the Cards had 62 digs, which was the fifth-highest total of the season, fourth highest in a four-setter.
 
"We have four kids that wear red shirts (liberoes) in practice, and yesterday they made practice go," said Edwards. "I feel like they had a huge part in our win today."
 
Crow had seven digs Thursday and Pequeno had two. Each came up with huge digs in the match at key moments in the third and fourth sets.
 
"We were able to grow up some in this match," said Edwards. "I really feel like our younger players had it click tonight."
 
Lamar wraps up its 2015 season on Saturday against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, who won the Southland Conference championship last week against Central Arkansas. The Cardinals will honor its two seniors, Moore and Jenna Jackson as a part of Senior Day festivities in pregame.