Lamar sports information

BEAUMONT — It took just one hour and 18 minutes Tuesday evening for Lamar to defeat Prairie View A&M in straight sets, improving the Cards’ record against the Panthers to 20-0 all-time.

Tomar Thomas secured her second double-double of the year with 12 kills and 10 digs, and Big Red outhit Prairie View .351 to .076.

“At this point we’re finally starting to find our way,” said head coach Michelle Kuester. “We talk about it a lot in practice that we have a tendency to start slow, and we’re aware of those things, so now we’re at the point where we’re thinking about how to improve and be more technically-minded and less worried about the result. That’ll help us moving forward.”

Lamar excelled with an extremely balanced attack Tuesday; Thomas (12) and Ivette Dim (11) each had double-digit kills, and Abigale Nash poured in nine more kills on a .300 hitting percentage. The setting duo of Kyla Rogers (18) and Alyssa Legette (24) continued to split assists pretty evenly, and three Cardinals had double-digit digs, including Erin Pequeno, who had 12 in her first match playing all four sets as the libero. Thomas added in another 10 digs and Nash had 11. Dannisha House protected the middle with five total blocks.

LU started out slowly in the first set but quickly overcame a small deficit to tie and then overtake Prairie View. The Panthers would tie up the game again four more times before either team reached 20 points, but Lamar was able to hold the Panthers off each time, winning points when it really mattered. A kill from Nash gave Big Red a first-set win, 25-23.

Momentum favored the Cards early in the second set but again the Panthers fought back into the game, briefly leading the set 11-10. Lamar’s grit shown through again in the set though as the Cards held the Panthers off each time, never allowing Prairie View another opportunity to take the lead. Dim defiantly spiked the ball for a kill on set point 24-20 to give LU a 25-20 win and a 2-0 lead heading into the break.

The final set largely belonged to Lamar with only a few Cardinal mental errors allowing Prairie View to keep the score close early on. LU took the third set 25-17 and the match in straight sets, improving to 3-6 on the year.