NEW ORLEANS, La. — On the final day of competition at the Green Wave Classic, the Lamar University volleyball team defeated Louisiana Tech in four sets, 25-11, 14-25, 25-12, 25-22, on Sunday afternoon at Avron B. Fogelman in Devlin Fieldhouse.

The Cardinals improved to 4-3 overall while they wrapped up the tournament going 2-1.

This marked LU's one and only Sunday match of the season. Despite having three of their starters unavailable for the final two matches of the weekend, the Cardinals stayed composed.

"Credit to those student-athletes coming in while adding tremendous value," said head coach Ariel Apolinario. "I thought we stayed composed and responded well with so many moving parts we're dealing with internally.

"I'm not sure we could have done that as a program a year ago. I thought we grew up."

Alexa Gonzalez surpassed 1,000 career assists. She was only 57 away from reaching the milestone.

Gonzalez tallied 65 assists for the weekend to give her 1,008 career assists.

LU jumped out to a 7-1 lead in the opening set. Lyric Jordan and Emily Moon each had a pair of kills during a 7-0 run.

Louisiana Tech struggled on offense, tallying only three kills.

LU took advantage of the miscues while also knocking down 12 kills in the set.

Taisha Rhone had three straight kills to extend her team's lead to 15-8.

The Cardinals followed up with an 8-0 run which got started with back-to-back kills by Maja Malinowska.

Gonzalez also highlighted the run with three services aces to extend LU's lead to 14 points.

Moon and Jordan put the finishing touches on the set by getting the final two kills.

Louisiana Tech flipped the script as it began the second set on a 10-0 run.

The Cardinals could not overcome the double-digit deficit as Louisiana Tech tied up the match.

LU regrouped and came out in the third set with an early eight-point lead.

The lead quickly grew to 11 after the Cardinals put together a 6-0 run that had two kills from Malinowska and a service ace by Gabby Baker.

Rhone tallied three of the four kills during a late 4-0 run that gave the Cards a 13-point lead to eventually take a 2-1 advantage in the match.

The final set featured six lead changes.

LU trailed by three points before it went on three 4-0 runs to take a 19-14 lead.

Louisiana Tech closed the gap late in the set, trailing by two but the Cardinals did not give in as they held on to the lead.

ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM

Baker and Malinowska were both named to the all-tournament team. 

Malinowska finished the weekend with 42 kills while Baker had 58 digs, 16 assists and four service aces.

MATCH NOTES

• Malinowska led the offense with 19 kills while she also recorded two service aces and 12 digs.
• Rhone finished with 11 kills and one solo block.
• Moon and Jordan each tallied eight kills.
• Daniella Udegbunam and Riley Johnson finished three solo blocks each.
• Gonzalez had 21 assists, three service aces, one kill and nine digs.
• Jo Moffitt tallied 16 assists, four service aces and 14 digs.
• The Cardinals served up 12 aces.
• Baker had nine digs, eight assists and two service aces.
• LU defeated Louisiana Tech for the first time since 2015. The Cardinals are now 22-9 all-time vs. La. Tech since 1988.

UP NEXT

The Cardinals travel to Huntsville for a midweek match against Sam Houston State on Tuesday, Sept. 9 at 6 p.m.