Sept. 21, 2007

Box Score

THIBODAUX, La. - In the team's home opener, the Colonels volleyball team played to a near packed Stopher Gym crowd and played well early. But the one thing that's plagued the team all season, reared it head midway through the first set and allowed the Lamar Cardinals to eventually take the match 3-0, 30-15, 30-13, 30-21.

After getting to 11 points, the Colonels had a defensive breakdown and let setter Andrea Hamilton serve 13 consecutive times on her way to getting five service aces in the entire game. Every set after, Nicholls would start strong, but Lamar finished stronger finishing the game with a .340 hitting percentage. In the second set, no Cardinal player had an attack error, as Lamar would only commit 9 errors as compared to Nicholls' 23.

"We played strong early in each set, but we never stuck with our game plan and Lamar did a good job of keeping us off balance," head coach Chris Laird said.

Cardinal hitter Kaci Brewer added 10 more kills to her season total leading Lamar, followed by Destiny Mason's eight. The most any Colonel could muster in kills was five, by Amy Beshir, Aaliyah Muhammad and Ivanina Ivanova. As a team, Nicholls had a .057 hitting percentage. Rachel Spreen was the Colonel most picked on in the back line, attesting to six return errors.

"As coaches, all we can do is give the players a layout for how to succeed, but it's up to them to use it on the court," Laird said. "These matches are only going to get tougher from here on out, and hopefully we will be able to regroup and get ready for McNeese tomorrow."

Tip off for Saturday's game against McNeese is scheduled for 4 p.m.