Oct. 29, 2009

The Lamar volleyball team will play its final two home matches of the season and attempt to send its three four-year seniors out in style against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and UTSA.

Lamar (11-10, 6-4 Southland) will face the Islanders on Friday at 7 p.m. and the Roadrunners on Saturday at 3 p.m. Both matches will be played at McDonald Gym.

Tickets are $3 for adults and $2 for youths and seniors, while LU students are admitted free of charge. Free pink bracelets will be handed out to the first 250 fans in attendance on Friday and the three seniors will be honored prior to Saturday's home finale.

Lamar's senior trio of Kaci Brewer, Lauren Holdorff and Adrianne Meengs have been the heart and soul of the program while helping the team to the 2007 Southland Conference regular-season title and the 2008 SLC Tournament crown.

Brewer has appeared in 96 career matches and has totaled 853 kills, 872 digs, 57 aces and 143 blocks. She has earned all-conference honors each of the last two seasons and was named MVP of last year's SLC Tournament.

Holdorff, who was a first-team all-conference selection a year ago, has consistently generated strong numbers at the net as exemplified by her 700 career kills, .261 career hitting percentage and 266 blocks.

Meengs has been very exciting to watch night-in and night-out while establishing herself as one of the most dangerous attackers at the setter spot. She will end her career fifth all-time at Lamar with more than 3,000 assists and has over 500 career kills, the most by a setter in school history. She was named the 2007 SLC Setter of the Year, earned a spot on the 2008 SLC All-Tournament team and was a first team academic all-SLC honoree.

A&M-Corpus Christi is winless in nine league matches and 7-17 overall under first year head coach Tony Graystone.

Emma Ridley leads the Islanders with 4.2 kills per set, followed by Jessica Korda at 2.8 kps. Those two have taken nearly 60 percent of the offensive swings and accounted for 63 percent of the kills total. Courtney Wypiszynski has totaled 25 service aces to lead the team.

LU leads the series with A&M Corpus Christi 11-1 and has won four straight, including both meetings last season and the previous match in 2009, 3-1, on Oct. 10.

The Roadrunners, who will play at Sam Houston State on Thursday night, are coming off a five-set home loss against league-leading Central Arkansas, which dropped UTSA to 9-14 overall and 4-5 in league play.

UTSA won the first meeting of the season, 3-2, on Oct. 8 when they won the final three sets.

Outside hitter Kendra Rowland has posted six consecutive double-doubles and leads the team with 13 this season. She also has a team-best 243 kills (2.70 kps) and is one of just two players to see action in all 90 sets. Rowland's 260 digs and 20 service aces rank second only to libero Kelsey Jewasko, who has 315 and 21, respectively, to lead UTSA.