BEAUMONT – In need of a big win to take one step closer to a spot in the Southland Conference Tournament, Lamar University volleyball will end its three-match home stand with a rematch with Houston Baptist at 7 p.m. Tuesday night in league action at McDonald Gym.
The Cardinals (5-19, 5-7 Southland) sit in a four-way for sixth place, leaving four teams battling for three spots with four matches to go in the season. Of the three teams tied with Big Red, it beat Central Arkansas and fell to McNeese and Southeastern Louisiana, and will not face either of those teams again in the regular season.
Each of the final four matches of the year will feature an opponent the Cardinals have faced on the year.
Tuesday's match is Luau Night and fans are encouraged to wear Hawaiian-themed shirts. Along with Luau night, fans will receive leis – while supplies last – and there will be a limbo contest at halftime.
Lamar downed Houston Baptist (17-11, 8-4), which sits at third place in the league standings, in five sets early in October, largely behind then career-high 22 kills. She has since upped her career-best to 28 kills at McNeese two matches ago.
In the fifth set of the match, the Huskies held a 12-10 lead, but a kill from freshman
Dannisha House and block from
Ivette Dim and
Amy Hollowell tied the game at 12-12. Hollowell jump started a three-point rally with a kill, followed by a HBU error and
Tomar Thomas kill, to end the match.
In 44 attempts, Grant made only seven errors for a .341 attack percentage mark and contributed five blocks, a dig and assist. House tied her best block mark with nine and finished with seven kills and no errors in 14 attacks.
That match was significant for a couple of Cardinals as well. It was the first of Morton's double-double run that has extended to seven of 10 matches with 26 assists and 13 digs against Sam Houston. It was also the first match that
Carlyn Stella took over at libero, where she excelled. She has since been moved back to outside hitter due to injuries and a very sure hand in
Lauren Stahlman. Against HBU, Stella had 18 digs – one short of her then career-best 19 earlier in the year.
Hollowell also had a fine match in round one with nine kills and 12 digs.
HBU enters looking for one more win to lock a spot in the Southland Conference tournament. The contest will feature the conference's two best hitters, statistically.
Chelsea Grant tops the SLC with 3.71 kills per set on the year and Bailey Banks is right behind her with 3.69.
Banks lit up the Cardinals in the first matchup with 27 kills and five errors on a .471 attack mark. The outside hitter also had 19 digs, both were the match highs.
Melissa Fuchs, who had 15 kills against LU, follows Banks with 2.70 kills a set, and Ashlee Vann (2.55) and Blair Gillard (2.04) also have more than two a set. Kayla Armer is the top assist-getter in the league with 10.28 a set, and recorded 59 in the match.
Both Armer's assists and Banks' kills were the most allowed by LU this season.
Defensively, Banks leads HBU with 3.40 digs a set, barley over Hailey Erickson's 3.39. Gillard is a menace at the net with 1.30 blocks a set, followed by Kayla Davenport's 1.17.
As a team, HBU hits for a .206 attack mark and earns an average of 16.47 kills per set.
The Cardinals will hit the road one final time in the regular season on Saturday for a long road trip to Abilene Christian at 1 p.m. at Moody Coliseum.
