| Freshman Kendra Rowland had her 17th double-double of the year on Saturday. |
BEAUMONT ? Lamar clinched a share of the Southland Conference Regular Season Championship and the No 1 seed at next weekend's postseason tournament with a sweep of UTSA on Saturday afternoon at McDonald Gym (34-32, 30-17, 30-16).
The Roadrunners (13-20, 5-11 SLC) came out on fire in game one, using a 9-1 run to take a 13-5 advantage. Leading 29-24, it looked as though UTSA was on its way to victory, but the Lady Cardinals (24-8, 15-1 SLC) came alive after junior middle hitter Victoria Prior's serve for the game went into the net.
Lamar then reeled off four consecutive points on libero Andrea Hamilton's serve to tie the match at 29. A kill by freshman outside hitter Kendra Rowland gave the Roadrunners another game point at 30-29, but a ball-handling error by junior setter Rebecca Hrapmann tied the stanza at 30. Freshman middle hitter Valorie Rogers followed with a winner to give UTSA a 31-30 lead, their seventh game point, but the Lady Cardinals staved off defeat yet again. Lamar went on to score four of the final five tallies of the frame to complete the improbable victory.
It was all Lady Cardinals the rest of the way, as they hit .424 en route to the 13-point game two win and then limited UTSA to a .026 percentage one frame later to complete the sweep and clinch the conference title.
Rowland recorded her 17th double-double of the season with a match-high 15 kills and 10 digs. Prior added 13 winners and three total blocks (2 solo/1 assist), while junior libero Audrey Hiser collected a match-best 15 digs.
Middle blocker Molli Abel led a balanced Lamar offense with 10 kills and setter Adrianne Meengs handed out 32 assists.
The Roadrunners are back in action on Friday night when they open play in the SLC Tournament against Stephen F. Austin (25-7). First serve is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. at the Convocation Center.