BEAUMONT, Texas – Just a week after opening the season with three non-conference matches within 24 hours at Stephen F. Austin, the Lamar University Cardinal volleyball team now turns its focus to a doubleheader at UL Lafayette Saturday morning.
 
The doubleheader against the Ragin' Cajuns continues a limited fall schedule for the Cardinals (0-3) after the Southland Conference elected to push all conference competition for the sports of cross country, football, soccer and volleyball to the spring semester. For the Red and White, Saturday's doubleheader will be the final two matches of the fall the way the schedule currently stands.
 
Big Red enters the weekend series looking for their first win of the season. The youthful Cards took a smaller squad to Nacogdoches and despite dropping three matches, the Cardinals saw vast improvement in the second match against their rivals compared to the first.
 
"Everyone has been working hard in the gym and we've put a lot of energy and effort into training and I think it will pay off," said LU head coach Jordan Lay. "We're excited to see how we compete. We will have more lineup options available to us this week which gives us a chance to perform at our best. Another benefit is the energy we will get from our sideline during matches."
 
UL Lafayette enters the weekend with a perfect 4-0 record after picking up two wins over Houston Baptist to open the year followed by two victories against South Alabama. The doubleheader against LU will be the final two matches before the Ragin' Cajuns open Sun Belt Conference play. The Sun Belt remains one of the few NCAA Division I conferences electing to play a fall schedule.
 
"Any opponent we play this fall will have an experience advantage over us," said Lay. "But, we knew that coming into the season. We expect some big swings from UL Lafayette. This is another team that does a really good job limiting errors. We are really going to have to be on our 'P's and Q's' and play some mistake free volleyball."
 
The first match Saturday will begin at 11 a.m. with the second match beginning at 4 p.m. Both matches will be played at the Earl K. Long Gym.