HUNTSVILLE, Texas – A late run in the third game that carried over into the fourth gave Sam Houston State all it needed to close out the Lamar University volleyball team 3-1 (19-25, 25-19, 22-25, 10-25) Friday night at Johnson Coliseum in both teams' Southland Conference opener.
 
Lamar (10-5, 0-1 Southland Conference) was up 21-19 in the third set, but the Bearkats (7-8, 1-0) went on a 6-1 run with five kills and a service ace and only allowed Chelsea Grant's kill for Lamar. The Cards had an excellent hitting percentage (.382), but defensively could not prevent SHSU's .412 hitting percentage. Both teams had only two attack errors in the set, but Lamar allowed 16 kills over its own 15.  
 
The fourth set got off to a rocky start for the Big Red after it fell to an 8-2 deficit. They would eventually put back-to-back points together on a Grant kill and SHSU error to make it 8-4, but that was the only run they could assemble.  For the set, the Cards hit for a -.038 average (four kills, five errors) and the Bearkats a .321 average (13 kills, four errors).
 
For the match, Cortney Moore led the team with 14 kills and a .324 hitting percentage, and Autumn Taylor added on 10 kills in her 28 attempts.  Grant had a match-high five blocks while Lauren Stahlman had 17 digs. The Bearkats' Brooke White and Madison Wallace had 14 kills apiece, and Taylor Cunningham had 10. 
 
As a team, Lamar had a .189 hitting percentage with 41 kills, 17 errors and 127 attempts, while Sam had a .237 percentage.
 
Errors in the first set crippled the Cards, who had an 11-7 seven lead that forced Sam Houston State to call a timeout, but out of the timeout errors let the Bearkats get back into it and take a 13-12 lead before Lamar had to respond with a timeout of its own.
 
The set went back-and-forth until Sam Houston closed it out with a 4-0 run made of four-straight kills to win it 25-19. Madison Wallace had two kills and Michelle Griffith and Shelby Genung each had one.
 
Lamar University responded in the second set for a .263 hitting percentage (14 kills and only four errors). It captured and held a lead, never more than two points, until an attack error gave SHSU a 13-12 advantage. A two-point run after the error gave the Bearkats a 15-12 lead, but the Cardinals responded to tie it up at 16-16. The 4-1 run had kills by Taylor, Grant and Moore.
 
After they tied it at 16-16, the Cardinals pushed it out to a 20-16 lead before Sam Houston scored another. Three-straight attack errors from Brooke White and a Moore kill did in the four-point run.
 
The Cardinals return home for back-to-back Southland Conference matches against McNeese State on Thursday and Nicholls on Oct. 3 at McDonald Gym. LU hits the road again for a two-match stretch at Abilene Christian (Oct. 8) and Incarnate Word (Oct. 10).