BEAUMONT – There was a thriller Tuesday night at McDonald Gym that had a little something for everyone.
 
Up 2-0, Lamar University gave up the lead after a crazy fourth set to send a tied match to the fifth where it was able to pull out a 3-2 (26-25, 25-23, 23-25, 32-34, 16-14) win over third-place Houston Baptist in a big Southland Conference match.  
 
"The effort put forth, especially in the fourth and fifth, was one of the most courageous things I've seen a team do," said head coach Alan Edwards, who had to sit on the bench for a couple minutes after HBU hitter Bailey Banks hit into an error to end the match.
 
"I've been coaching in some form for 25 years, and I don't think I've ever coached a match quite like that," he said. "We still have some dragons to slay, but we're going to get better and we are getting better."
 
Already having to go past 25 to get the first set win, the two programs took it to a whole new level in the fourth.
 
Lamar (6-19, 6-7 Southland) just dropped the third set after Houston Baptist (17-12, 8-5) "took it to them," and eventually fell back at eight in the fourth when the Huskies held a 15-7 lead. At that point, Edwards called a timeout and that is when the comeback started.
 
"In four, we're down eight points. We had every opportunity to quit, but we continued to fight for it," said Edwards.
 
 HBU was able to get to a nine-point lead at 16-7, but Carlyn Stella started a run with a kill and assist from Ashley Ellis. With Murielle Halvac at the endline, HBU hit into four errors and took a reception error that made it 16-13. HBU snapped the streak, but Lamar drew closer on a three-point run with kills from Chelsea Grant and Hlavac as well as an attack error from Melissa Fuchs.
 
The big run of the set was the one that LU used to tie the game and take a one-point lead. Grant put away a kill that made it a 24-22 HBU lead, but Dannisha House and Grant locked up kills that tied it. To take the lead in the set, Grant smashed one that fell just inside the out-of-bounds line and put Big Red on top 25-24.
 
The Cardinals ran through five match points to attempt to win it, but HBU did what it needed to survive and turned the tables and claimed four match points until Ashlee Vann made it 33-32 and attack error on LU ended the set.
 
"You can't a let a team like HBU off the hook that many time," said Edwards.
 
The fifth set started out slow again for Lamar, who trailed 8-5 at the side change. Houston Baptist eventually led by four at 11-7, but the Cardinals worked it back to tie at 12-12. An attack error from Fuchs gave LU the lead, but she made up for it with a kill to tie at 13-13. Kills from LU's Hlavac and HBU's Blair Gillard kept it tied, but Thomas smashed a kill to make it 15-14 and Bank's error ended it.
 
"When talking about the match," we have to start at the third set," said Edwards. "We sided out at 68 and 65 percent in the first two games and held them to 63 and 60, but we came out of the locker room and allowed them sideout at 70. They kind of stuck it to us in the third."
 
Lamar hit for a .390 average in the third with 19 kill and just three errors, but HBU had 19 kills and two errors in 11 less attacks.
 
"We're a team that can be efficient offensively in earning points, but we're just giving away way too many," said Edwards. "That is really good team, who is in third place. That shows we can play with the top end of our league but have to be more consistent."
 
Big Red finished the match with 93.5 points (18.7 per set), but gave up 93 (18.6).
 
"We have to be better defensively," said Edwards. "They out-dug us by 10 balls, and that is not okay. We were hit with a lot of balls that we couldn't dig. We just need to get better there."
 
As a team, the Cardinals hit for a .282 attack percentage, with the high coming in the fifth set at .423. They had 84 total kills (16.8 per set), the team's best output on the year by 11 kills.
 
Grant tied her career-high for kills in a match at 28, second time in two weeks. Grant, the conference's top hitter went toe-to-toe with second place, Banks, and was two shy. Grant was followed on the team in kills by Amy Hollowell (15), Hlavac (13), Thomas (11) and Carlyn Stella (10).
 
Three Cardinals reached into double-doubles on the night. Hollowell added 16 digs to her total and Hlavac 13. Haley Morton made it eight double-doubles in 11 matches with 38 assists and 11 digs.
 
Defensively, libero Lauren Stahlman had 20 digs and House had four blocks, both team highs.
 
For HBU, setter Kayla Armer walked away with a triple-double with 62 assists, 11 kills and 11 digs.
 
The match ended a three-contest home stand for Lamar, which hits the road for a Saturday match at Abilene Christian at 1 p.m. After the Cardinals return home to end the season against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and Incarnate Word.  
 
The win keeps the Cardinals in a two-way tie for sixth place and is the most conference matches LU has won since 2013 (7).