Final Stats BEAUMONT, Texas – After nearly three weeks and 13 consecutive victories, the Nicholls State volleyball team suffered its first defeat since August, falling to the Lamar Cardinals 3-0, 25-18, 25-22, 25-20 Saturday afternoon.

The Colonels (14-4, 1-1 SLC) were led by Kathryn Stock and Jessica Addicks combined 18 kills, and Jordan Karst's 14 assists. Rachel Yezak finished the match with 12 digs.

Lamar's (4-13, 2-0 SLC) Wendy Krell led all players with 16 kills to lead the Cardinals, followed by Megan McStravick who finished with ten. Each finished hitting over.500 for the match. Alex Morford ended the match with 47 kills, 19 more than the combined 28 the Colonels had in the three-sets.

The Cardinals forced the Colonels into hitting .175 for the match, and hit above .300 only once in the match, that coming in the third set. The Cardinals had 50 digs in the match led by Angel Colyar's 19 and Cynthia McCollum's 12.

With the score at 10-10 in the first set, the Colonels and Cardinals tied and traded the lead 11 times until reaching a 17-17 tie. At that point, the Cardinals went on a five-point run to distance themselves from the Colonels, before winning the set 25-18.

The second set seemed to favor a Colonel rally, jumping out to a 7-4 lead early, but Lamar would outscore the Colonels 12-4 including two four point rallies to make the score 16-11. Although Lamar would jump out to an even larger lead, the Colonels would rally to within one of Lamar and make it close, Lamar held Nicholls to only three more points, eventually winning 25-22.

The third set, Lamar jumped on the Colonels from the start in route to a 13-9 lead. Throughout the course of the set Nicholls would keep it close, always staying within three to four points of the Cardinals, but the points would be too much to overcome as Lamar would finish the Colonels with a 25-20 victory.

The Colonels will return home next week hosting Central Arkansas and Northwestern State next Thursday and Saturday at Stopher Gym.