BEAUMONT, Texas – The New Orleans Privateers took the first set in extra rallies, but were topped 3-1 (25-27, 25-17, 25-20, 25-13) by the Lamar Cardinals on Saturday afternoon at McDonald Gym.
In the deciding set, Maja Malinowska had kills on three consecutive rallies that helped boost the Cardinals to a 15-9 lead in the fourth set. Malinowska had 19 kills and 15 digs while Kinley Elms finished with a team-best 20 kills.
The Privateers had 20 kills and 24 digs in the opening set and held a big advantage in hitting percentage with a .378 clip compared to Lamar's .204 in the first set.
Lamar used a 5-0 run to take a 13-9 lead, but the Privateers quickly erased that deficit behind a 6-2 spurt over the next eight rallies. The third time was the charm for New Orleans as they converted on their third look at set point behind a block from
Courtney Roundtree and
Ava Kennon.
The second set was tight throughout the first 30 rallies, but Lamar hit a stretch of four consecutive points to extend what was a one-point lead to five when they led 19-14. The Cardinals saw out the remainder of the set behind a .375 attack percentage with just one error in 32 attempts.
There was nearly nothing in between both teams in the third set. The score was tied on nine different occasions, but the Cardinals used a late spurt keyed by kills from three different players to separate to a 25-20 set win and a 2-1 lead in the match.
INSIDE THE BOX
Laura Piva finished with 14 kills on the day.
Vanae Sapp also had 14 kills and added 21 digs.
Alessandra Meoni finished with nine kills.
Peyton Cole (12),
Lani Alleman (10) and
Rylie Hallman all had double figures in digs.
Defne Eciroglu finished with 20 assists.
NEXT UP
The Privateers return home on Thursday, Oct. 9 to take on East Texas A&M at 6:30 p.m.
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