Nicholls volleyball team lets potential conference win slip away in loss to Lamar

The match was there for the taking for the Nicholls volleyball team Saturday afternoon at Stopher Gym, but Lamar took it back.

In Game 4, Nicholls was up as late as 12-11 before Lamar tied the game off of the serve of Kaeden Robinson and Lamar never looked back on its way to the 25-21 win to force a deciding Game 5.

Nicholls raced out to a 4-0 advantage in the fifth game before Lamar took the lead at 6-5.

The game was tied 11-11 before took the lead on a service error by Nicholls’ Rae Leano. Lamar won 15-11, with the match-winning point coming on a kill by Lamar’s Lyric Jordan.

“We were able to start off the fifth set pretty strong,” Nicholls coach Jonea Rima said. “I think were first to five points and made a couple of sub changes that we normally would make. We just kind of got stuck a few rotations and had to fight for each point after that.

“It’s probably the closest match we’ve had. It was our first five-setter all year. You just cycle so fast; your kids have to be kind of ready to go from the very beginning.”

The 21-15, 28-26, 25-14, 21-25, 12-15 defeat left Nicholls winless in Southland play at 0-7 and 2-15 overall.

“We made some great strides,” Rima said. “We just couldn’t finish the match.”

Lamar’s first win of the season gave the Cardinals a 1-6 conference mark and 1-17 overall.

Down 13-21 in the first game Nicholls rallied back with Kendall Battistella serving four-straight points to make it 17-22.

Facing game point at 17-24, Nicholls managed to get within 20-24 with Trinity Vinzant serving before a Taisha Rhone kill gave Lamar a 25-21 win.

“We started off pretty slow and once you kind of get a hole dug, it’s hard to come out,” said Rima. “To be successful, you have to play even cleaner than before. It just took us a bit of time to get started.”

Unlike the first game, Nicholls started a rally a bit earlier to win Game 2.

Trailing 8-12, Nicholls managed to pull within 16-17.

A pair of service aces by Jordan allowed the Cardinals to stretch the advantage to 21-16.

After Nicholls tied the game 22-22, the teams traded points until Paris Dixon went to the service line.

An attack error by Jordan put Nicholls on top 27-26. A dink by Autumn Perry gave Nicholls the 28-26 win to tie the match.

A combination of Rae Leano serving and the outside hitting of Gracie Campbell allowed Nicholls to stretch it’s lead to 19-11 in Game 3.

With Nicholls leading 20-14, Campbell served out the side, including a service ace for game point for a 25-14 win at 2-1 match lead.

One set away from winning the match, the Lady Colonels were unable to gain any separation in Game 4.

With the game tied, a point off the serve of Robinson gave Lamar a 13-12 edge and a lead it would not surrender in a 25-21 win that forced the deciding Game 5.

Playing in only her second match since coming back from an injury, Campbell, a freshman, had 28 kills to pace the Nicholls attack. Perry had 13 kills.

“We had pretty good contributions from all of our hitters, which is nice. Obviously, we were a little heavy on the outside,” Rima said.

Battistella had 29 assists for Nicholls and Berra Soyler had 22. Perry had four block assists to pace the Lady Colonels.

Rhone had 27 kills and six service aces for Lamar. Jo Moffitt had 52 assists. Gracie Cassidy had eight block assists for the Cardinals.