BEAUMONT, Texas — Lamar University volleyball has won four straight matches to put itself a game out of second place in the latest Southland Conference standings.

The Cardinals wrap up the week with a match against Houston Christian, which is in a three-way tie for second.
2025 SCHEDULE: HCU began the season 0-5, not winning a single set … The Huskies then evened out by winning five in a row … To start conference play, the Huskies won their first five matches which began with four sweeps and a four-set win over A&M-Corpus Christi … Recently, HCU has dropped its last two matches in four sets to the conference's top two teams — UT Rio Grande Valley and Stephen F. Austin.

2025 RECORD: 10-10 overall (5-2 in SLC play)

OFFENSIVE LEADERS: Junior middle blocker Allana Archie leads the way with 192 kills and 223.5 points … Freshman outside hitter Joya Euhus is second on the team 141 kills while junior middle blocker Hanna Redrow is third with 137 … Sophomore setter Peyton Fadal has a team high 569 assists, ranking fourth in the SLC in assists … Sophomore defensive specialist / libero Bianca Byerly is fourth in the conference with 25 service aces.

DEFENSIVE LEADERS: Byerly leads the defense with 226 digs … Archie has a team high 47 total blocks (41 block assists, six solo).

2024 RECAP: HCU finished the season 11-17 overall and 8-8 in conference play … The Huskies were seeded sixth at the conference tourney, dropping their first-round match to third seeded SFA.

HEAD COACH: Trent Herman, a former two-time SLC Coach of the Year, is in his 14th season at the helm since taking over in 2012 … Herman has a career record of 232-189 with HCU after posting nine seasons of .500 or better and leading the program to 12 straight SLC tournaments.

• SFA 12-6 (7-0)
• UTRGV 11-7 (6-1)
• Southeastern Louisiana 13-6 (5-2)
• HCU 10-10 (5-2)
• UIW 9-10 (5-2)
• Lamar 11-11 (4-3)
• A&M-Corpus Christi 7-12 (3-4)
• East Texas A&M 5-13 (3-4)
• New Orleans 7-13 (2-5)
• McNeese 6-13 (2-5)
• Nicholls 10-10 (0-7)
• Northwestern State 1-20 (0-7)

LU vs. HCU: The Huskies are 15-8 all-time vs. the Cardinals since the first meeting in 1986 … HCU has won the last 10 meetings … LU last defeated the Huskies on Nov. 1, 2016 by way of five sets in Beaumont.
LEADING THE CONFERENCE: LU leads the Southland Conference in five of the seven categories — points (1,333.5), assists (950), kills (1,005), blocks (198.5) and digs (1,409) … The Cardinals are now second in service aces (130).

NATIONALLY RANKED: The Cardinals lead NCAA Division I in attacks (3,141) … LU is second in digs, seventh in assists, seventh in kills and fourth in total blocks.

GO, GABBY, GO: Gabby Baker continues to lead all of Division I in digs with 434 … Baker is one of three freshman in Division I ranked in the top 10 in digs (The other two are: East Texas A&M's Jade Washington (No. 5) and College of Charleston's Jumana Martin (No. 10)) … Baker is one of two liberos in Division I with 400+ digs … Baker leads the conference in digs while she ranks second in digs per set (5.05) … Baker surpassed Shanda Hart (2000) and Natalie Sarver (2002), who were both ranked 10th in the program's record book for digs in a season … Baker is 56 digs away from tying the third most digs in a season (Natalie Sarver, 2000 | 490 digs) while she is three away from tying the ninth most digs in a season (Andrea Hamilton, 2006 | 437) … Hamilton (2007) holds the program record for digs in a season with 602 while Miriam Erickson (1992) is second with 534.

DIGGING DEEPER: LU has had liberos post 400+ digs in back-to-back seasons (2024 and 2025) … Keeley Nellis posted 421 digs in 2024 … The last time an LU libero tallied 400+ digs in a season was Lauren Stahlman in 2015 (427 digs).

OFFENSIVE LEADER: Maja Malinowska is back on top as the SLC's leader in kills (266) and points (310) … Malinowska ranks third in the conference in kills per set (3.69) … She also ranks seventh in digs (240) while she is tied for ninth in service aces (21) … Malinowska has recorded 10 or more kills in 15 matches … She has also tallied 11 double-doubles … Malinowska recorded the second most kills in a four-set match in program history (27 vs. Nicholls) … She became first Cardinal to hit .500 or better (.571 vs. Nicholls) with 20 or more kills since Tomar Thomas in 2018 (20 kills / .625 vs. Mercer) … Malinowska now has 601 career kills in her two-year career.

BRINGING THE BOOM: Daniella Udegbunam is seventh in Division I in total blocks (98) while she is second in solo blocks (29) … Udegbunam leads the SLC in total blocks and solo blocks while she is second in block assists (69).

GETTING RECOGNIZED: Baker became the first defensive player at LU to earn Southland Conference Player of the Week honors since Stahlman in 2015 … Baker earned the honor back on Sept. 22.

MILESTONE MOMENT: LU had two setters eclipse the 1,000-assist career mark this season … Jo Moffitt reached 1,005 career assists in her three-year career while Alexa Gonzalez now has 1,448 in her two-year career.

HOME SWEET HOME: LU is trying to post back-to-back seasons of .500 or better at home since 2018 (7-5) and 2019 (6-6) … The Cardinals have gone 12-5 at home the last two seasons.

FOUR-SET MATCHES: The Cardinals are 6-2 in four-set matches … LU has played in four straight four-set matches as it rides a four-game winning streak.

THIS AND THAT: Gonzalez ranks third in the conference in assists (591) and fourth in service aces (28) … Taisha Rhone is seventh in the conference in points (233), sixth in kills (201) and 10th in total blocks (41) … Kinley Elms is ninth in the conference in kills (160) … Rhone has 505 kills in her four-year career … Hailey McEllrath is just outside the top 10 in the conference in total blocks with 40.