ABILENE, Texas – After what turned out to be a five-set thriller at McDonald Gym that get Lamar University volleyball back on track, the Cardinals will return to the road for a contest at Abilene Christian on Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. at Moody Coliseum in Southland Conference action.
 
The contest is the final road match of the regular season for LU (6-19, 6-7 Southland), which hosts Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Thursday and Incarnate Word the following Saturday to wrap up the regular season. Abilene Christian comes in after winning its match over Houston Baptist Thursday night and is 9-19 overall and 8-5 in league play.
 
Heading into the match, the Cardinals sit in a tie with Central Arkansas, who they beat at home in early October and will not play again. Although ACU cannot advance to the league tournament, it sits in a tie for third.   
 
Lamar's last time out was a nail-biting contest against the Huskies Tuesday, which snapped a three-match skid for the Cardinals. After it jetted out to a 2-0 lead, Lamar surrendered it with a crazy fourth set and sent it to a fifth to take the win. Three of the five sets – including the clincher – had to go past 25 points (15 for the fifth) to win the set. It took 34 points alone to grab the fourth.
 
ACU and the Cardinals have already squared off once this season, and Lamar nabbed its first 3-0 win of the season against it. Saturday's meeting will be the fifth meeting between the programs, and Lamar has a 3-1 lead. Each match of the series has been in league play.
 
LU put together 54.5 points in three sets last time against ACU, which averaged out to 18.1 per set, and at the intermission of the contest, it had 19 points a set. They sided out at 69 percent and held a 72 percent mark in the first and 75 in the second.
 
Grant led that match with 15 kills, which tied her then season-best for kills in a three-set match. She was followed by Ivette Dim, who led the Cards in attack percentage (.353), and Tomar Thomas, each with seven. Amy Hollowell finished the match tied with Parish for five kills.
 
Lamar finished that match with a .259 attack mark and 43 kills, its best output in a three-set match, which is now its third best three-set match output. Big Red also tallied 50 digs and a 6.5 blocks.
 
Caryln Stella notched 18 digs at the libero position and Haley Morton just missed a double-double by two digs. She finished with 26 assists and eight digs.
 
Abilene finished the match with a .117 attack percentage, still the best that Lamar has limited all season. Jacey Smith, who tops the team with 2.91 kills a set, led the way in the last match with 10 kills. She is followed by Lexi Mercier (1.73), Laruen Walker (1.87), Corinne Grandcolas (1.74), Kendall Bosse (1.07) and Marybeth Sandercox (1.36), all with one or more kills a set.
 
Bosse is the Wildcat setter with 7.76 assists a game, and also has a team-best 26 service aces. She follows only Amanda Chapa (7.47) with 2.21 digs a set. Defensively, Dorothy Swanson trails Chapa and Bosse with 2.20 digs a set. Walker tops the team with 1.08 blocks a set and Mercier follows with 1.01.  The Wildcats rank third in the league in blocks, 2.33 per set.
 
Lamar returns home to wrap-up the season in McDonald Gym. Thursday's 7 p.m. start will be Student Appreciation Night and the Saturday 1 p.m. contest will be Senior Day for four Cardinals seniors, Chelsea Grant, Ashley Ellis, Nicole Parish and Lauren Stahlman.