Sophomore Kelsey Jewasko had a match-high 24 digs on Saturday.BEAUMONT
— UTSA dug itself a 2-0 hole for the second time this fall against Lamar, but unlike the first meeting three weeks ago, the Roadrunners were unable to rally and they fell in four sets (31-29, 25-17, 17-25, 25-19) on Saturday at McDonald Gym.
UTSA (9-16, 4-7 SLC) came back from an early deficit in the opening frame and staved off a pair of set points before serving on two separate occasions for the early lead. However, the Lady Cardinals fought off the pair and, after blowing two more chances to close out the stanza, were successful on their fifth set point of the frame.
Lamar (13-10, 8-4 SLC) raced out to a 12-4 lead in the next stanza and easily extended the advantage to two heading into intermission with an eight-point triumph.
The Birds came out of the locker room on fire, using a 10-4 stretch to break open a one-point set, and they hit .448 on the strength of 14 kills and just one error on their 29 attacks to draw within one.
However, the Lady Cards hit .480 (15 kills/3 errors/25 attacks) in the deciding frame and sent UTSA to its third loss in a row and fifth in the last seven outings overall.
Outside hitter Whitney Walls slammed home 15 kills to lead UTSA on offense, while Kelsey Jewasko controlled the back row with a match-best 24 digs.
Lauren Holdorff paced Lamar with a match-leading 19 kills, while setter Adrianne Meengs just missed her second triple-double of the season with 43 assists, a dozen digs and eight winners.
UTSA returns to action on Tuesday when it hosts Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (7-19, 0-11 SLC) at 6:30 p.m.