Final Stats THIBODAUX, La. - Although the Nicholls State women's volleyball team finished with 50 kills, the Colonels were not able to match Sam Houston State's Carli Kolbe's 24 kill, 14 dig afternoon and were defeated by the Bearkats 3-1, 21-25, 18-25, 25-22, 18-25, Saturday in Thibodaux.

Nicholls (15-7, 2-4 SLC) has dropped their third straight home match, the first time such has happened all season, while the Bearkats improve to 11-9 and 5-2 in the SLC.

The Colonels finished the match hitting .246 as a team, led by Sarah Terry's 13 kills and .522 hitting percentage, followed by Jennifer Brandt's 11 kills and 11 digs. Both Jordan Karst and Nancy Taylor had time at setter, combining for 39 of Nicholls' 50 assists on the day.

Behind Kolbe's double-double, Bearkats setter Kym Loving finished with 58 assists, with Kim Black and Haley Neisler each ending the match with ten kills each. Kolbe and Kaylee Hawkins each finished with 14 digs for SHSU, and as a team earned nine services aces to only two service errors.

With the score tied 7-7 in the first set, the Bearkats rattled off six straight points to take a 12-7 lead, with four points being the average lead the Bearkats would use to eventually win the set 25-21. SHSU would then go on to jump out to a 9-3 lead to start the second set, a lead Nicholls would not even come close to touching, when at 17-14, SHSU would go on a 6-0 run to extend the lead to 23-14, winning the set 25-18.

Overall the Colonels seemed to find a complete rhythm in the third set, jumping out to a 7-3 lead in the set. SHSU scratched back to make the set 11-10 in favor of the Colonels, as every time the team got a comfortable lead the Kats found a way to make the set interesting. it would go to another tie-break at 20-20 as the Colonels got four consecutive points by a Terry ace and kill, and kills from Jessica Addicks and Brandt, eventually winning the set 25-22.

Although that momentum didn't carry over early in the fourth set, the Colonels rallied after falling in a deep hole to take a 10-9 lead. But the energy was quickly snuffed out by the Kats as they went on a five point run to take a 14-10 lead, then had a three point run with the score 16-13 to go up by seven. Three straight by the Colonels to make the score 20-17 maybe brought new life to team for a moment, but SHSU closed out the match scoring five of the next seven points to win the match 25-18.

The team will be back in action next weekend, traveling to face Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and league-leading UT-San Antonio Thursday and Saturda