LAKE CHARLES—Seniors Keegan Nelms and Angela McGownd paced McNeese volleyball with 20 kills and 21 digs, respectively in its home opening 3-1  (19-25, 21-25, 25-19, 18-25) loss to Houston here Tuesday night.
 
The 20 kills are a season high for Nelms and the 21 digs for McGownd is her third straight match with 20 or more digs.
 
"While I'm disappointed in the outcome, I think we are moving in the right direction in a couple of areas," said head coach Ashleigh Fitzgerald. "We got our middles more involved today, and we served pretty well. It's disappointing when you earn more points than the other team and don't pick up the win."
 
The Cowgirls (2-2) outscored Houston (1-4) 69.5 to 63.0 in the total points column. Nelms led the Cowgirls with 20 points on the night and also a .325 hitting percent.
 
Junior setter Caitlin Sharrock dished out  26 assists while junior Kendall Kilchrist was credited with 13.
 
What hampered the Cowgirls throughout the match was a few unforced errors in crucial times that could have shifted the momentum in favor of the Cowgirls.
 
"We need to work on controlling our unforced errors and staying 100 percent focused for longer stretches," said Fitzgerald.
 
McNeese will look to regroup this weekend when they will travel to Lafayette to take part in the Sawyer Camillo Memorial Volleyball Classic.
 
The Cowgirls will take on UL-Lafayette at 1:30 p.m. and Florida A&M at 4 p.m. Friday before facing Eastern Michigan at 10 a.m. Saturday morning.