HOUSTON – For the first time this season, the Lamar University volleyball team held a lead after three sets, but the host Cougars rallied to win the fourth and fifth sets when the Cardinals fell to Houston 3-2 (21-25, 25-23, 25-21, 22-25, 7-15) in the Cougar Classic at Yeoman Fieldhouse Saturday afternoon.
 
"We have to maintain an aggressive mentality. I told them in the huddle between the third and fourth sets that we have to give them a reason to quit," said head coach Alan Edwards. "We didn't quit playing, we just started playing careful."
 
The Cardinals had a 19-16 lead in the fourth set, which forced UH to call a timeout. The Cougars responded with three-straight points to tie it at 19-19, then took a lead at 21-19. Three of those points were attack errors from the Cardinals.
 
"We started to get careful and didn't attack all the way through," said Edwards. "It is something we're working on. I thought the lineup we played to start did a very good job with it."
 
Lamar tried to rally back by getting it to a one point deficit, but the Cougars were able to end the set and tie the match on a LU attack error and kill from their kills leader Sarah Afflerbaugh.
 
Lamar was down 1-0 after a set played. The second set was a back-and-forth battle that featured 10 ties and seven lead changes, the last of which was an attack error from Allerbaugh that put the Cardinals up 24-23. Big Red won the set when Hunter Wise registered another error.
 
The third set was not quite as close, and the Cougars were never able to gain a lead in the game. They had it tied at 16-16, but LU opened up a 4-1 run on two kills by Chelsea Grant and a couple of UH errors.
 
Grant led the match with 17 kills, her fifth-straight match to lead LU and register 10 or more.
 
"She's learning to hit the shots her physical abilities will allow her," said Edwards. "She getting the ability to chop down hard in a double block."
 
Grant joined Ivette Dim, Murielle Hlavac and Tomar Thomas with kills to help grab the win in that set.
 
Dim had a kill to open the fifth set, but once the Cougars grabbed the 2-1 lead they did not give it up.
 
The Cardinals finished the match with a .139 attack percentage, and UH was able to get up to .252. LU's best game was the second when they had a .211 percentage (14 kills, six errors, 38 attacks).
 
Lauren Stahlman, who was voted to the All-Tournament team, finished the match with her season-high in digs at 13 – also led the team. Amy Hollowell registered a double-double, her second career, with 11 digs and 13 kills. She tied Zahria Scott with 11 digs.
 
"She had solid ball control in serve-receive, and is doing a nice job directing the serve-receive and defensive patterns," said Edwards. "We're able to do a lot more with this team in terms of game planning than we have in the past, and she is a big part of that."
 
Due to injuries, Ashley Ellis has had to take over as the lone setter, and she finished with 45 assists in the match, highest in the contest.
 
"That is what she is capable of," said Edwards. "She is so athletic, she just needs to become a bigger offensive threat."
 
Two other Cougars finished with kills in the double-figures, Brianna Gardner (10) and Megan Duncan (10).
 
LU was only able to earn 12.4 points a set while allowing UH to get 14.4
 
Lamar heads to Oklahoma to take part in the Nike Invitational, which features the Sooners, UTSA and Ohio. The first match of that tourney is against the Bobcats at 10 a.m. Friday.