LAKE CHARLES, La. - Battling through at least 10 ties in each set, Lamar University (8-11, 3-6 SLC) weathered the storm against McNeese State University (8-13, 1-8 SLC) Tuesday to win the first Battle of the Border in 2019.

Abigale Nash led with 13 kills and 10 digs, her 11th double-double of the season. Malaysia Murdock had nine kills on an .818 hitting percentage, and Kayla Neumann also had nine kills. Dannisha House had another eight kills. Annika Slovak had 39 assists, Erin Pequeno led in digs with 19, and McKenzie Bennett and Neumann each had double-digit digs as well.

The least-competitive set of them all, there were still 10 ties and 10 lead changes in the first set. McNeese had tied the set as late as 17-17 before Lamar took the lead for good at 18-17. The Cards held the Cowgirls off until they won 25-21.

McNeese led through most of the second set, though LU managed to tie the game at 12-12, 17-17, 19-19, 20-20, 22-22, and 24-24. Big Red briefly took a 25-24 lead before McNeese captured consecutive points to lead 26-25, forcing a set point of its own. A kill by Nash, a Cowgirl error, and a House kill gave LU a 28-26 win.

The final set featured an astounding 15 ties and 15 lead changes, and the deciding set was tied as late as 21-21. But the Cards refused to let the match drag on, and Lamar took the final four points of the match to win the set 25-21.

Up Next

The Cards travel to Houston Baptist (tied sixth, 4-4 SLC) on Saturday before returning home to host UIW (13th, 0-8 SLC) on Halloween. A three-game home stand will open November with Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (fourth, 5-3 SLC), New Orleans (fifth, 4-3 SLC), and Southeastern Louisiana (tied sixth, 4-4 SLC) coming to town. Road matches at Stephen F. Austin (first, 8-0 SLC) and Abilene Christian ( will close the regular season.

"We're a young team and still learning, but we're making good strides," said Kuester. "I think people are going to be caught off guard by us in the second half of conference play and our moral is only on the way up. That's a good thing for the second half of the conference season."
 
#WeAreLU