Oct. 14, 2009

Box Score

BEAUMONT, Texas - Sophomore outside hitter Rachel Yezak had 12 kills and 12 digs and senior outside hitter Manieka Golden added a double-double of her own, but it wasn't enough as the Nicholls State University volleyball team (9-11, 3-3 Southland Conference) saw its four-match win streak come to an end with a hard-fought 3-2 (18-25, 25-22, 25-18, 25-22, 15-10) loss to Lamar (10-8, 5-2 Southland) on Wednesday night in Beaumont.

"We lost to a very good team tonight," head coach Chris Laird said. "We played very well at times, but there's a reason they are third in the conference. We kept it close and had chances to win, but we just didn't sustain that long enough. The girls did a great job of trying to fix the strategy as much as possible, but we got off the game plan a little. Our service errors killed us tonight, but we have to get over this and get ready for Sam Houston State on Friday."

The Cardinals, who entered the contest second in the west division and third in the conference overall, got off to a fast start. Lamar hit .350 (17-3-40) as a team in the opening set while limiting Nicholls to a .167 team hitting percentage. The Colonels saw a team-high four kills from freshman outside hitter Jennifer Brandt in the first and Yezak and Golden added three each, but it wasn't enough to keep pace with Lamar, which claimed a 25-18 opening set win.

The Colonels bounced back in the second as Brandt added five more kills without an attack error and Nicholls hit .216 (14-6-36) as a team. Meanwhile, sophomore libero Danielle Daigle recorded five of her 20 digs and the Colonels tallied a pair of blocks to limit Lamar to a .147 (11-6-34) hitting percentage en route to a 25-22 second set victory to tie the match at 1-1.

However, Lamar reclaimed a one-set lead with another 25-18 win in the third. Lamar recorded just one attack error on 24 attempts while notching 11 kills for a .417 hitting percentage to outpace Nicholls once again and present the Colonels with a do-or-die fourth set.

Looking to force a decisive fifth set, the Colonels came out strong in the fourth. The Colonels totaled three blocks and 15 digs to keep the Cardinals at bay. Meanwhile, Golden led the charge offensively with seven kills and one error on ten attempts for a .600 hitting percentage to lead Nicholls to a 25-22 win to tie the match at 2-2 and send it to the fifth.

Nicholls was neck-and-neck with the Cardinals in a fifth set that saw four tie scores. However, after knotting the set at 7-7, Lamar went on an 8-3 run to put the match away with a 15-10 fifth set win.

The Colonels will now return home to host Sam Houston State as part of NCAA Volleyball's annual Dig for the Cure benefitting the Susan G. Komen Foundation for Breast Cancer Research.

First serve is set for 7 p.m. in Stopher Gym. Admission is free for all Nicholls students with valid IDs and all children age five and under.