LAKE CHARLES—With the regular season winding down and McNeese in a hunt for a Southland Conference Volleyball Tournament spot, the Cowgirls wasted little time in disposing of Lamar in straight sets (25-23, 25-15, 25-14) here Tuesday night in Memorial Gym.
 
The win over Lamar (6-18, 3-10 SLC) was the second over the Cardinals this season. McNeese (8-20, 6-7 SLC) defeated Lamar in four sets in Beaumont, Texas a little over a month ago.
 
Four McNeese players hit over .300, led by Paige Havel's .400 hitting percent. Havel picked up eight kills on 15 attempts to go along with her match high six blocks.
 
Keegan Nelms led all players with 12 kills on 29 attempts and committed only one hitting error to end the match with a season best .379 hitting percent. Allison Lippert hit .375 and Katelyn Elliott hit .300.
 
McNeese used both setters effectively tonight with freshman Amari Franklin picking up 14 assists and sophomore Caitlin Sharrock recording 12.
 
"We switched to a 6-2 tonight and I thought it was a positive change for us," said head coach Ashleigh Fitzgerald. "I also liked that we continued to dig a lot of balls and our attacking in transition in our 6-2 looked pretty good."
 
The Cowgirls ended the night hitting .273 as a team and dug 40 balls with Angela McGownd leading the way with a match high 12.
 
McNeese opened the match by taking a 5-3 lead in the first set. Behind the serve of Nelms, the Cowgirls reeled off five straight points to extend the lead to 10-3.
 
Lamar would go on a run of its own and eventually tied the set at 15 apiece. A kill by Paige Havel gave McNeese a 17-16 lead and the Cowgirls never trailed again and went on to pick up a first set 25-23 win.
 
The second set was all McNeese as the Cowgirls jumped out to an 8-1 lead behind Alexandra Aguilera and Allison Lippert's serve. The closest Lamar got was five points a few times later in the match, but McNeese closed out the match on a 6-1 run to take an overall 2-0 lead with the second set win.
 
The third set was back and forth at the beginning but straight kills from Ebony Lewis, Nelms, and Havel put McNeese up 16-11. The Cowgirls then outscored Lamar 9-2 to seal the third set and the overall match.
 
McNeese will get a few days rest before heading to San Antonio this Saturday for its regular season road match. First serve is set for 10:30 a.m.