NACGODOCHES, Texas – The Lamar University Volleyball team got double-digit efforts in kills from Chelsea Grant and Autumn Taylor, but fell at Stephen F. Austin 3-1 (14-25, 6-25, 25-19, 20-25) in Southland Conference action at Shelton Gym Tuesday night.
 
The match was the first of three this week and third of a five-contest road swing the Cardinals (13-13, 3-9 Southland Conference) are playing.  The final two matches will be at New Orleans on Thursday and Southeastern Louisiana Saturday.  Those two matches are the final road contests of the 2015 regular season.
 
Stephen F. Austin improved to 18-12 on the year and 9-4 in league action.
 
Taylor had her 14 kills on 43 swings and only three errors, and also checked in a .256 hitting percentage in the match. Her percentage was only bested by Grant's, who accounted for 11 kills, 26 swings and two errors, .346 mark. Carlyn Stella added five kills to the effort and Cortney Moore had four.
 
Defensively, Grant led the way with five blocks (two solo, three assisted), the team had seven total rejections. Setter Haley Morton recorded her second-straight double-double on 31 assists and 13 digs on the night. Amy Hollowell, who also had a kill, had 12 digs.
 
Justice Walker led all players with 21 kills on a staggering .559 kill percentage; she only had two errors in 34 attacks. Makenzee Hanna had 12 kills and Jacque Allen recorded seven.
 
Just like their last outing, the Cardinals fell behind 2-0 at the break and tried to mount a comeback with a third-set victory. In that set, LU jumped out to a quick lead and held it the entire game, and really sustained the win without any long runs- the longest was three to make it 21-15.
 
In that run, LU had two kills from Taylor and a service ace issued by Murielle Hlavac. During that individual game, Lamar had a .297 hitting percentage with 14 kills and three errors.
 
For the entire match, Big Red finished with a .104 attack percentage with 36 kills and 21 errors.
 
After the road swing is completed, the Cardinals will return home for the final two matches of the regular season, against Texas A&M Corpus Christi and Houston Baptist.