BEAUMONT, Texas – Head coach Ariel Apolinario's first match at McDonald Gym proved to be a success as Lamar University volleyball were victorious in their home opener against Prairie View A&M, 3-1 (25-15, 21-25, 26-24, 25-19). This was the second win for the Cardinals over the Panthers this season.
 
Lamar finished the match hitting 58-11-150 (.313) from the floor, the team's highest mark since their opening match in 2021. Maja Malinowska enjoyed a spectacular day with career-highs in kills and digs with 20 and 21, respectively. Alexa Gonzalez recorded a career-high 51 assists and ten digs while Lyric Jordan chipped in 11 kills. Keeley Nellis also had 20 digs.
 
PVAMU ended the match with an attack rate of 14.2 percent (48-26-155). They also recorded five aces and four blocks, but 26 attacking errors came back to bite them.
 
The Cardinals led the first set from start to finish while not recording an attacking error. Five different players recorded kills for Big Red as they gained the early advantage on their home court.
 
The Panthers responded in the second set by jumping out in front early leading by as many as five points. Lamar pulled to within one late, but the hot start was too much to overcome as things were evened up.
 
It was the hosts who started out with an early 6-2 lead in Set 3, but a late 7-1 run from the visitors gave PVAMU a 22-20 advantage prompting two Lamar timeouts. The Cardinals would reel off the final four points of the set, though, with nine kills from Malinowska proving the difference.
 
The fourth set played out very similar to the first set with Lamar controlling the set throughout. Nine digs from Malinowska and eight digs from Nellis set the tone as Big Red coasted late to a victory in their home opener.
 
Lamar hits the road again this weekend for the Bearkat Classic in Huntsville, Texas where they will face hosts Sam Houston on Friday at 6:30 p.m. before playing Texas Southern on Saturday at 10 a.m. The match against SHSU will be streamed on ESPN+.