BEAUMONT – It was a big leap forward said head coach Alan Edwards after the Lamar University volleyball team took both matches in the Lamar Invitational Friday, downing Texas Southern 3-1 (23-25, 25-23, 25-12, 25-12) and UAB 3-0 (25-22, 25-17, 25-23) in McDonald Gym in front of an evening crowd of 411.
 
"This was the first night since I got here that we were able to go in a match with any kind of game plan," said Edwards. "I told them before we went in to tonight's match (against UAB), you're not going to be able to play with this team unless you do something you've never done, follow a game plan and make adjustments.
 
"They stayed with the game plan all the way through," he said. "That was a big, gigantic leap forward for our team," said Edwards.
 
LU, which starts the season 2-0 for the first time since 2003, will try for the tourney sweep and win on Saturday at 1 o'clock against Marist, who lost to UAB and defeated Texas Southern on Saturday. Prior to that match, UAB and TSU will square off at 10:00 Saturday morning.
 
Chelsea Grant and Cortney Moore, both preseason All-Southland Conference honorees, had huge matches.  Grant finished the day with 18 kills, eight blocks and a .371 hitting percentage while Moore put up 19 kills, seven blocks and a .333 percentage. 
 
"We're able to do some nice things when our middles are in tempo and rhythm," said Edwards after the match against TSU.  "We want to run with what our strength is until somebody makes an adjustment and proves they can stop it," said Edwards.
 
Both Moore and Grant had 12 kills apiece in that match.  Amy Hollowell (12), Tomar Thomas (12), Nicole Parish (12) and Autumn Taylor (11) all finished the day with double-digit kills.  Hollowell had the highest hitter percentage at .407, and only recorded one error in 27 attempts.
 
The first match did not start as well for the Cardinals as the second match, but regardless they got it done and have a 2-0 record for the first time since 2003.  The nightcap had LU battle for a tight 25-22 game one win, which was quite the opposite when LU took on Texas Southern in the tourney opener.
 
LU jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the first set of the second match before a series of errors let UAB claw back and tie it at 4-4. A service error from Gabby Deshotel allowed the Cards to go up 5-4, but a four-point run gave the Blazers an 8-5 lead. They held it until a UAB attack error tied the match at 18-18, and Lamar held UAB to four points for a 25-22 win.
 
The second set was not as close after LU jumped out to a 14-7 lead, UAB would get within four at 17-13 but never any closer. The Cardinals hit for a .348 percentage and had 10 kills and two errors in 23 attacks.
 
The third set of the match was a nail biter with neither having more than a three point edge.  UAB held the advantage or was tied all the way until LU grabbed it at 13-12 after an attack error from Deshotel.  The Blazers would eventually tie it up at 20-20, but could never gain control again.
 
Alabama-Birmingham hit for a .138 percentage and had 39 kills and 24 errors in 109 attacks, and had four service aces to an astounding 13 service errors. Deshotel had 12 kills for the Blazers, but had a -.023 attack percentage. Haley Jared and Amy Hunter also had 10 kills apiece.
 
The Cardinals lost the first set of the opener 25-23 on a slow start, and did not get really get rolling until the second game.
 
"That was kind of the mark of what we were last year.  We would go into matches and spend the first set of the match figuring out whether our opponent wanted to play," said Edwards. "We talked about it all preseason on how we can't afford to do that.
 
"We weren't that good in the second set either.  Part of it may have been lineup changes that we made, but it was very nice to see Amy Hollowell come in and give us that spark," said head coach Alan Edwards.
 
Hollowell had 10 kills in that match without any errors.  She did not play in the first set at all, but was dynamic in the rest of the match.
 
"That's a big performance for that kid specifically to come off the bench and do that," said Edwards. "We have a gym full of good volleyball players and they are going to have to pick each other up from day-to-day."
 
A huge 9-3 run in the third game gave LU an 18-10 lead, and it closed it out with by winning the last three points and last seven of nine.  The fourth set saw LU build up to a six-point lead  at 12-6 that held until 18-12, but Lamar would go on to close it out holding the Tigers scoreless to end it.
 
In the new two setter system, Haley Morton had 44 assists and Ashley Ellis had 31 had through both matches.  Defensively, Lauren Stahlman led the way in digs with 32, while Hollowell (14), Taylor (19) and Morton (12) had 10 or more.  
 
After the Lamar Invitational concludes, the Cardinals will travel to Rice on Tuesday at 6 o'clock before a four-match tournament at Texas State that starts on Friday.