SAN MARCOS – Chelsea Grant took home all-tournament honors for the second-straight tournament and helped the Lamar University volleyball team to two straight-set victories over Prairie View A&M, 3-0 (25-12, 25-12, 25-16), and Texas Southern, 3-0 (25-17, 25-17, 25-15), in the final day of the Delta Zeta Classic, hosted by Texas State, Saturday.
 
Grant finished the day with 14 kills (2.33 per set) and a .423 hitting percentage. For the tournament, she averaged 2.31 kills per set and a .444 hitting percentage. The Cardinals (5-3) tied the win count they had all season in 2014 through only eight matches this season.
 
For Saturday's matches, Moore led the team with 21 kills, 3.50 kills a set and a .581 hitting percentage, and Tomar Thomas had 3.00 kills per set and a .455 percentage. Lamar University hit .321 combined between the matches and only allowed the opponents to reach .073.
 
The Cardinals controlled the first match from the  first whistle, due in large part to what failed them in the first day of the Delta Zeta Classic, serving. For the match, they aced Prairie View 10 times and only made errors five times.  They also only took one reception error.
 
For both matches, they had 21 aces and only three reception errors.
 
"(The first match) was our best serving match of the year," said head coach Alan Edwards. "We did a great job from the endline and really dictated the entire match from there. We were able to put the ball where we wanted it and take advantage of some weaknesses."
 
Five of the team's aces were in the first set, the first gave LU a 2-0 lead after Thomas' kill for the first point of the match. The next point of the set went to Prairie View, but LU stretched it out to 6-1 after back-to-back aces from Chelsea Grant.
 
By the time Big Red worked to 13 points, it had a 10-point lead. The Panthers never got closer than five to the Cardinals.
 
Two kills by Thomas, one from Grant and one from Autumn Taylor gave Lamar a 4-0 lead to start on the second set. Despite jumping out quickly in the set, the Cardinals could not put the Panthers away until they finally broke it out to a six-point lead at 13-9.
 
"There was a stretch at the beginning of the second set that we couldn't finish them off," said Edwards. "We haven't reached a place where can close out a team. We made some mistakes and couldn't get a run together."
 
The Panthers got within one at 9-8, but could not keep it going.
 
"We're getting better at maintaining high points and getting out of the low ones," said Edwards. "We didn't give up many runs and sided out very well and well above our goal."
 
Until the third set, there had not been a tie or lead change in the match. The third set saw both teams go back-and-forth until LU took a 5-4 lead, and PVAMU never took it back.   
 
As a team, the Cardinals hit .308, the second highest mark since the season opener (.331). Moore continues her tear with .778 attack percentage with eight kills and one error in nine total attacks.  Thomas led the team with 11 kills and only had three errors in 20 attempts, and Grant had eight kills and two errors.
 
"Both of our middles were great today and Tomar Thomas had another big match," said Edwards.
 
Haley Morton had her second-highest assist game of the year with 26 and Ashley Ellis followed with 12. Grant finished the match with four blocks.
 
Lamar continued to roll through the second match of the day, and second of the season against the Tigers, and finale of the tournament. It hit for an even better average at .333 with 37 kills and only nine errors in 84 total attacks.
 
Moore finished with 13 kills in the match with two errors and a.500 attack percentage.  Thomas followed her with seven and a .538 percentage and Grant had five with one error and a .364 mark. The Cardinals set a season-high mark in service aces with 11 and had only two reception errors and nine service errors.
 
Lamar jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first game, but TSU would eventually tie it 8-8.  From there, the Cardinals would go on a 5-1 run and keep Texas Southern from ever getting closer than five.  The second set featured only one tie and no lead changes, TSU tied it at 1-1 but could not match it after.  The third set saw Lamar and the Tigers tie at 1-1, but a 5-1 run put LU up 6-1, the closest the Tigers would get.
 
Lamar skips a midweek contest and will head to Louisiana Tech on Friday for a tournament that will pit them against the Bulldogs, Southern and ULM.