Lamar University’s volleyball team finished their season with a victory, sweeping Southeastern Louisiana in three sets, Saturday, in the McDonald Gym.
“It was a really great match for the seniors,” head coach Michelle Kuester said. “They got to kind of leave on a good note and leave with a positive reflection on the program. We made a lot of progress throughout the year and I think we’re on the upward climb for a surprising year next year.”
Despite LU being the first with points on the board with a kill by senior Ivette Dim, SLU took the early lead going on a 4-point run before the Lady Cardinals caught up to tie the game. The remainder of the set became a battle of tiebreakers as both teams went point-for-point tying nine times and seeing six lead changes. Tied at 12, Lamar finally got the break they needed after two attack errors by SLU gave LU a two-point lead. The Lady Cardinals never trailed after that and took the first set, 24-19.
Again, Southeastern Louisiana put the first five points on the board in the opening of the second set before Lamar was able to catch up and eventually tie the score at nine with an SLU attack error. After an SLU attack error and bad set, LU found themselves in the lead, 10-9. With back-to-back kills by LU’s Tomar Thomas and Caroline Golden, Lamar jumped their lead to two. SLU struggled to get back in the game but a tough Lamar offense and defense held the Lady Lions to 12 points as they tacked on point after point until LU captured the second set, 25-17.
The final set proved to be a little more difficult with six-ties at points one, four, six, nine, 10 and 14 with neither team being able to get the edge until a kill by LU’s Bre’Ala Box gave the Lady Cardinals a one-point advantage to energize her team. LU tacked on five more points holding SLU to only two at 20-16. The Lady Lions would only get two more points before Lamar wrapped up the set 25-18 and sealed the match 3-0.
Tomar Thomas ended the night leading the team with 10 kills. Bre’Ala Box, Abigail Nash and Ivette Dim all finished with 8 kills apiece.
“All the seniors played well today,” Kuester said. “They all got floor time which is big, and I definitely think that they ended on a good note.”
LU finished the season 7-20 overall and 4-12 in Southland Conference play. Thomas led the season with 280 kills, with Dim not far behind at 210 kills. Nash ended with 156 and Box had 131.
“I’m looking forward to the kids we’ve got coming in,” Kuester said. ‘We’ve got some good recruits coming in and the returning classmen are all really good and we’ve just got a lot of work to put in during the spring. We need to eliminate errors and increase our volleyball IQ.”
Story by Cassandra Jenkins, UP editor