BEAUMONT – After a sluggish start to the match, the Lamar University volleyball team gutted out third and fourth set victories to take down UT-Rio Grande Valley 3-1 (20-25, 25-12, 26-24, 25-23) in match two of the Cardinal Classic hosted in McDonald Gym Friday night.
 
The Cardinals (8-4) play two on Saturday against Jackson State (10 a.m.) and Tulane (5:30).  Both Jackson State and Tulane met up in the tournament's first match, and the Green Wave controlled it throughout for a 3-0 win.  Tulane (4-5) and UTRGV (5-6) will meet up at 12:30 on Saturday and the Vaqueros will go again at 3 o'clock, this time against Jackson State.
 
Lamar was down 13-9 midway through the third set but quickly started to chip away at the lead.  Down 15-12, the Cardinals put together a four-point run that gave them a 16-15 lead. Chelsea Grant recorded two blocks, one assisted by Ivette Dim, and Tomar Thomas and Dim each had a kill.
 
Both freshman, Thomas and Dim had huge matches on Friday.  Thomas led the team with 14 kills and added two blocks, and Dim had five kills and a team-high .364 hitting percentage.
 
"To watch those two grow up has been so much fun," said head coach Alan Edwards. "Sometimes freshmen need to be looked in the eye and told they have to be good right now because they are capable of it. They were both able to do that tonight.
 
"Ivette just hit some balls tonight that were monster shots," he said.
 
UTRGV gained control of the third set again and built a three-point lead at 23-20, but a 3-0 run that consisted of a Cortney Moore kill, Vaquero error and a Thomas and Grant block tied the match at 23 and forced UTRGV to call a time out.  Thomas answered the time out with a kill, which was followed by a kill from Bojana Mitrovic.  The match ended when Grant put slammed one to the ground after Mitovic errored.
 
"Set three and four tonight, those were gutsy performances. To comeback late from being down and grind it out is a gutsy performance," said Edwards. We'll talk to them about who they are and who they are capable of being. We have some kids that are special."
 
Down 13-9 again in the fourth set, but LU put together another run that would tie it at 13-13.  Cortney Moore put down a kill to make it 13-10, Lauren Stahlman aced Kasey Sanchez and Thomas slammed one home which forced the Vaqueros to take a timeout at 13-12.  Out of the time out, Grant and Nicole Parish blocked Alexandra Ecker.
 
Both teams went back-and-forth until it was tied at 20-20 and a UTRGV service error gave the Cardinals a lead they would not surrender again.
 
In the first set, UTRGV hit the floor with a hot start and gained a lead on the Cardinals that grew to 10 by the time the Vaqueros were at set point.  But momentum gained from a six-point run toward the end of the game with Autumn Taylor serving gave Lamar all it needed to dominate the second set.
 
To end the first, Taylor earned a kill that cut the score to 24-15. Thomas had two kills in the run, Megan Dempsey had an UTRGV error as well as Alisha Watson, and Taylor had a service ace which ended up giving Big Red 20 points. Taylor took over serving in the second set with a 2-1 lead, and by the time she was done LU had grown the advantage to 5-2.  In the set, LU had three or more point runs four times.
 
"When they go on a run, it is like they snap to and realize that they are doing things and are pretty good," said Edwards. "Sometimes we have to fall into that. I think that is just part of the maturation process."
 
"(The slow start) is a concern.  We are not very good out of the locker room, and I don't know why," he said. "This team is so talented, but after last season I still think they spend some days wondering who they are. Once we really started to compete and really take a match to somebody, we're capable of being very good."
 
Grant finished with her sixth double-digit kill count of the season (10) along with Moore's sixth at 10. Grant had a hitting percentage of .292 with three errors in 24 attacks and Moore had a .263 percentage on five errors in 19 attempts. For the third time this year, Grant had seven total blocks, her season high is nine.
 
Taylor rounded out the group of four with 10 or more kills with 10 in 31 attempts.
 
"Chelsea Grant just continues to improve and for Cortney Moore to put a ball away late with the match on the line shows how much better she is getting," said Edwards. "Autumn Taylor had big night too."
 
Stahlman had a career night from the libero position after she finished with 31 digs and no reception errors. Haley Morton had 26 assists on the night, just short of her season high 30, and Ashley Ellis had 21. Nicole Parish had six kills.
 
"Lauren Stahlman went in and ran the two-man serve-receive pattern for the first ever," said Edwards.
 
As a team, Lamar hit for a .221 percentage with a set-high of .312 in the second.  Despite the sluggish start, it hit .240 in the first and rounded out the match with .140 in the third and .216 in the fourth. The Vaqueros had a .164 hitting percentage with 23 errors in 146 attacks. Alisha Watson led with 18 kills and Mitrovic had 14.
 
Lamar open's Southland Conference play on Sept. 25, after the conclusion of the Cardinal Classic that wraps up regular season tournament play.