BEAUMONT – After it took three-straight and suffered a setback in its last four matches, the Lamar University volleyball team will hit the road again to try to get back into the win column. This week the Cardinals head to Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas for a 7 p.m. start Thursday night before a tough match at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at 1 p.m. Saturday afternoon.
With the win over Central Arkansas, the Cardinals (3-14, 3-2 Southland Conference) started the league portion of their slate 3-1 for the first them since 2011, and this week they will try to keep pace with that season, which was 4-2 after six contests. Heading into the week, Big Red is 2-1 in SLC road matches, a first since 2008 when it was 3-1 to start.
During hot four-match stretch for LU, junior setter
Haley Morton emerged as a factor, both offensively and defensively. The Pearland native has recorded a double-double in the last three matches and notched a career-high with 52 assists against Northwestern State.
Chelsea Grant continues to force her dominance in leading Lamar with a 3.33 kills per set mark and is hitting .204 on the campaign.
Murielle Hlavac, who picked up her first career double-double against Northwestern State, is second at 2.14 kills per set.
Thursday's Cardinal Showdown will be the fourth between the two schools. Lamar leads it with a 2-1 record, but UIW (5-13, 1-5) won the most recent contest. Last season, the two squared off in San Antonio and UIW took the match in four sets. Prior that, LU won in straight sets at home in 2014 and on the road in 2013.
Incarnate Word opened their league season early on Sept. 1, against UCA at a tournament in Conway, Arkansas. They downed the Sugar Bears, but have dropped every league match since.
Autumn Lockley is the top hitter for the Cardinals with both 3.41 kills per set – which is second in the Southland Conference - and a .221 hitting percentage. Emily Waller is the only other UIW player with two or more kills a set (2.12).
Setter Madison Williams tops the team with 6.66 assists a game and total service aces (20). Defensively, Shaina Garza leads Incarnate Word with 2.85 digs a set followed by Lockley at 2.70 and Brittany Muller at 2.63. Sarea Alexander leads the way in block at 1.03.
Saturday's contest will be a stout test against the defending Southland Conference champion, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (11-6, 6-0), which is riding a 24-match win streak in league play that dates back to 2014. The series with the Islanders leans the Cardinals' way 13-10, but Corpus Christi has won the last eight.
Brittany Gilpin, who ranks sixth in the SLC in kills a set, leads the Islanders with a 3.26 mark, and is second in hitting percentage (.231) behind Madeleine Doud's .287 mark.
Kristyn Nicholson leads Corpus Christi with 8.79 assists per set and also is the best server on the team with 27 total aces. Defensively, Kate Klepetka is second in the conference with 5.08 digs per set, followed on the Islanders by Gilpin's 2.61 mark. Madi Fitzsimmons is the team-leader in blocks at 1.08.
The Islanders are in the league's top five in all but one statistical category, and rank first in hitting percentage (.266), kills per set (14.20), opponent's hitting percentage (.114) and assists per set (13.15).
After the Corpus Christi match, the Cardinal will have a brief stop at McDonald Gym for a match against Abilene Christian on Tuesday before heading to Nicholls and McNeese the following weekend.
