Aug. 29, 2008

Box Score

WACO, Texas - The Lamar University volleyball team opened the 2008 season with a dominant performance on Friday afternoon, posting a 25-9, 25-9, 25-13 win over Prairie View A&M at the Baylor Invitational at the Ferrell Center on the Campus of Baylor University.

The Lady Cardinals opened the match by jumping out to a quick 7-0 lead and stretched their lead to nine points at 12-3. With a comfortable cushion to play with, LU cruised to a 25-9 win to go up 1-0 in the match.

The second game was a mirror image of the first as Lamar again pounced to a 7-0 lead, but then stretched their lead to 12 points with a 7-2 run to go up 14-2. The Lady Cards again cruised to an easy 25-9 win to go up 2-0.

The third game proved to be a tougher test for the Red and White as Prairie View finally put up a fight. The game went back and forth for the fist 21 points before Lamar closed the match with a 14-3 run to win 25-13.

"This was a great confidence builder to start the season," head coach Justin Gibert said. "To dominate a Division I team without two of our veteran players is impressive. We had a very solid performance under Ashley Todd who did a great job of directing and controlling our team

Todd set the tone for the Lady Cardinals as she passed out 25 assists while Shalayne Blythe and Courtney Trevino each pounded down eight kills. Blythe hit a blistering .800 percent and Trevino posted a .208 hitting percentage.

The Lady Cardinals defense was anchored by libero Andrea Hamilton and Kaci Brewer who each picked up nine digs, while Lauren Holdorff posted two blocks. Hamilton was also a force at the service line for LU, throwing down five of the Lady Cardinals 12 service aces.

As a team Lamar posted a .390 hitting percentage for the match, while their defense held Prairie View A&M to a .013 hitting percentage. The Lady Cardinals were without the services outside hitter Meagan Adams and the 2007 Southland Conference setter of the year Adrianne Meengs, who were unable to play due to injury.

The Lady Cardinals will be back in action again on Saturday afternoon when they take on SMU at 1 p.m. They close out the tournament against host Baylor at 7:30 p.m.