Lamar sports information

HAMMOND, La. — Though Lamar’s women’s volleyball team won the first set 25-19 and led late in the second and fourth games, the Cardinals fell in four sets Thursday in a Southland Conference match at Southeastern Louisiana.

Tomar Thomas led offensively with 11 kills, and Bre’Ala Box joined her in double digits with 10, hitting at an impressive .444 percentage. Erin Pequeno was the only Cardinal with double-digit digs, and Kinsy Haschke handled the majority of the passing effort for the Cards Thursday with 21 assists, a career best.

Trading momentum in the early proceedings, Lamar took hold of the first set for good at 11-10 and used several big runs to keep SLU at arms’ reach. The Cardinals had set point with a nine-point lead before SLU made things interesting, forcing four more set points before Lamar finally closed out the set 25-19.

Big runs by both teams defined the entire second set. Southeastern took an early four-point lead to which Lamar responded and captured a five-point lead of its own, 13-8, only for the Lady Lions to come storming back and lead 16-14. Six of the next seven points went LU’s way, and again the Cards were on top, 20-18. But a final Southeastern run proved the undoing of the Cards; the Lady Lions won seven of the final eight points to win the set 25-21.

The Redbirds came out of halftime and won an early advantage, 5-2, only to see Southeastern tie the set. Lamar’s final lead of the set came at 6-5 Cards, and Southeastern Louisiana strung together a 13-2 run to lead by as much as 10, 18-8. A 5-0 run fueled by an Abigale Nash service ace, a kill by Murielle Hlavac, and back-to-back spikes from Tomar Thomas pulled Lamar within four, 18-14, but SLU had too much of an advantage, winning the set 25-15.

Lamar’s fight seemed to return at the start of the fourth set with a dominant 6-1 run, and though Southeastern fought its way back into the set to pull within one, 10-9, LU took four of the next five to lead 14-10. Unfortunately the Lady Lions had a few runs left in them, closing out the match by capturing 11 of the final 15. Southeastern won the set 25-18 and the match 3-1.