LAKE CHARLES, La. – Four players finished the day in double figures and Lamar University took McNeese right down to the wire but fell in five sets, 3-2 (25-22, 19-25, 27-29, 28-26, 15-8), Saturday afternoon in Lake Charles.
 
The Cardinals (9-20/3-15 SLC) hit nearly .250 for the match (66-21-184/.250) and took a 2-1 lead and had their chances in the fourth but simply ran out of steam late.
 
Big Red got a huge boost from its serve with 11 aces and recorded one of their best matches of the season at the net stuffing 21 attempts. Unfortunately, the wasn't enough to overcome 74 kills from McNeese on a day when the bad guys hit .277.
 
Senior Amber Johnson led a Big Red wave with her 17 kills (433 attack percentage). While Johnson was nearly unstoppable, she didn't have to carry the load herself. Junior Tytiana Johnson (14), senior Kaitlyn Gil (13) and sophomore Paige Dugan (12) each finished the day with double-figure kills. Junior Wiktoria Warpechowska just missed double figures with nine.
 
Defensively, the Red and White were led by six blocks from Johnson (Tytiana), and five assisted blocks and 13 digs from sophomore London Hatch. Senior Giselle Santini led the team with 22 digs on the day.