NACOGDOCHES, Texas – Lamar University showed marked improvement on the court from just 24 hours earlier against the exact same opponent but dropped a 3-0 (13-25, 19-25, -25) decision at Stephen F. Austin Saturday afternoon. The loss drops the Cardinals to 0-3 in the COVID shortened fall 2020 season.
 
The Cardinals recorded 27 kills on 94 attempts but were hurt by 17 errors (.106). The Lumberjacks posted a .330 attack percentage to go along with nine service aces.
 
Freshman Reese Cummings led the Cardinals' attack with 11 kills. Classmate Tytiana Johnson recorded a team-best .267 attack percentage with six kills on 15 attempts with just two errors. She also added six digs and a solo block.
 
"I felt like it was a total turnaround from yesterday," said LU head coach Jordan Lay. "It goes without saying that we practice and train to win matches, but we definitely showed improvement from yesterday. After the match yesterday we talked about some things we needed to improve on. Today we came out and executed more of those. I believe we showed that we can compete, that we have talent and we can win.
 
"It all comes down to experience. We really just need to gain more of it. SFA is a talented, veteran club. When you look at set two, we had too many unforced errors and at the end that cost us. We gained some valuable experience against an excellent team today and that will help us moving forward," added Lay.
 
The Cardinals jumped out to an early lead over the homestanding Lumberjacks, but SFA rallied with a six-point run to build an 8-4 advantage in the first set. Big Red managed to keep the match close trailing by only five before when SFA went on another run (five-straight) to take a commanding lead. The 'Jacks closed the opening set by scoring nine of the final 11 points.
 
After playing a relatively clean match at the start of the set, the Cardinals were hurt by four attack errors late. The Lumberjacks took advantage of the miscues by adding three service aces in the opening stanza.
 
SFA carried that moment into the second set scoring four of the first five points. After falling behind 14-9, the Cardinals rattled off four-straight points to pull within one, 14-13. After the 'Jacks scored a point to slow the run Big Red took advantage of an SFA service error with an Annika Slovak ace to tie the match at 15. Cummings followed with a kill and then SFA was stung by another attack error as the Cardinals jumped out to a two-point lead, 17-15.
 
Unfortunately for the Red and White, they couldn't hold the momentum as SFA rallied to score the next five points to build a three-point lead late, 20-17. The 'Jacks pushed their advantage to five before LU put a stop to the run with a Johnson kill. The Cardinals would tack on one more point before the hosts closed out the set.
 
The Lumberjacks finished off the match in the third set with a 25-16 victory.
 
The Cardinals will be back in action Saturday, Sept. 19^th, when they travel to Lafayette, La., to face UL Lafayette in a doubleheader. The first match will begin at 11 a.m. while the second is slated for a 4 p.m. start.