Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 HOUSTON, Texas – Lamar University returned to the court at Husky Gym for the final day of competition in the HBU Invitational. The Cardinals recorded a split on the day defeating Prairie View A&M, 3-0 (25-21, 25-16, 25-22), before dropping the afternoon match to Louisiana Tech, 3-0 (19-25, 22-25, 14-25).
 
In the first match of the day, Big Red stepped up its attacking from the opening contest in Houston posting a .227 effort (40-15-110) against Prairie View. LU was led by freshman Paige Dugan and sophomore Amber Johnson at the net. Dugan recorded a team-high 12 kills (4.0 kps) while hitting better than .400. Although recording one less kill, Johnson finished the match with a .450 attack percentage (11-2-20).
 
While the Cardinals offense was rolling, the Red and White prevented PVAMU from getting anything started. The Cardinals held their opponents to an .096 percentage, forcing the Panthers into 21 attack errors (to only 32 kills).
 
The Cardinals opened quick in the first set taking an 8-5 lead, an advantage that was aided by two attack errors, two service aces and a block error. After LU built a three-point advantage, the two teams began rotating points until the Cards grabbed a 21-16, lead. Once Big Red got within four points of the win, they kept PVAMU at arm's length shutting the door on the first set.
 
It was more of the same as LU jumped out to an early seven-point lead in the second and never looked back posting a 25-16 decision to build two-set lead, 2-0. The third set was a lot closer and watched LU be forced to rally, and rally they did posting a three-point decision, 25-22, to take the set and the match.
 
The Cardinals closed out the match by posting a .324 hitting performance in the final set (17-5-37).
 
LU opened the second set with a .130 attack percentage, but it only got tougher from their as the Red and White finished the match with a .066 (33-24-137) effort, while Louisiana Tech managed to hit .205 for the three sets. The Cardinals were led by junior Kaitlyn Gil's nine kills in the second match.
 
The Cardinals return to action Friday when the return home to host the second of their two non-conference home tournaments. The two-day, four-team tournament will consist of Arkansas-Pine Bluff (Friday, 1 p.m.), Little Rock (Friday, 7 p.m.) and Northwestern State (Saturday, 1 p.m.) from McDonald Gym.