Oct. 25, 2007

BEAUMONT - The Lamar University volleyball team will hit the road this weekend, looking to bounce back from their first Southland Conference loss of the season, and keep their conference championship hopes alive, when they take on Sam Houston State and Stephen F. Austin on Friday and Saturday.

The Lady Cardinals will get their road trip started on Friday night at 7:00 when they take on the Bearkats of Sam Houston State in Huntsville, Texas. Saturday's 7 p.m. showdown with the league leading Ladyjacks of SFA will wrap up the road trip, and marks the final regular season road contest of the season for LU.

Lamar enters Friday's match with an 18-8 overall record and a 9-1 mark in SLC play, having won 15 of their last 18 matches. Lamar has the second best record in the SLC, a game behind SFA's 10-0 record.

"We're one match back in the race for the conference championship, so every match counts," head coach Justin Gibert said. "We still have a chance at a championship, so winning both of these matches is very important to us. If we can win both, we'll be in a tie for first place with SFA, which gives us the opportunity to reach the goal we set at the beginning of the year of winning the conference."

The Lady Cardinal offense is led by senior Molli Abel's 3.21 kills per game with a league-best .377 hitting percentage while posting 1.15 blocks per game. Sophomore Kaci Brewer has also been strong offensively, posting 3.19 kills per game while sophomore setter Adrianne Meengs has passed out 11.01 assists per game. Lamar's defense is led by Andrea Hamilton, who is averaging 5.01 digs per game.

Sam Houston enters the match with a 5-5 record in Southland Conference play, and an 11-12 overall record. Their last action was on Tuesday night when they fell to SFA 3-0 in Nacogdoches, Texas.

The Bearkats are led by Cynthia Yarotsky who is averaging 4.19 kills and 4.26 digs per game, while Brittanie Wallace is averaging 2.69 kills per game. Setter Megan McNamara is averaging 9.51 assists per game, while Megan Kuehler is averaging 4.04 digs per game

The Ladyjacks enter the weekend with a perfect 10-0 record in SLC play and a 20-6 overall record. Stephen F. Austin has won a conference record 61 consecutive regular season matches against SLC opponents.

SFA is led by Lauren Railey's 3.33 kills and 3.32 digs per game, while Shelly Swendig and Traci Rhode are averaging 2.64 and 2.63 kills per game respectively. Setter JJ Jones is averaging 8.31assists per game and Jami Hill leads the Ladyjacks with 3.90 digs per game.

After the weekend swing through east Texas, the Lady Cardinals will return home for their final four regular season matches against Central Arkansas, Northwestern State, Texas A&M Corpus Christi and UTSA.