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Box Score

BEAUMONT – Junior Diara Reynolds posted a team-high 14 kills including the match-winner, as the University of Texas-Pan American Broncs volleyball team beat the Lamar University Cardinals 3-2 on Monday at McDonald Gym.
 
Down 22-17 in the first, the Broncs went on an 8-1 run to win the set 25-23. After dropping the second set 25-19, the Broncs won the third set 27-25. The Cardinals took the fourth set 25-16, but the Broncs won the decisive fifth set 15-13.
 
Freshman Alisha Watson had another strong all-around match for the Broncs (2-2) with nine kills, 17 digs and three blocks. Sophomore Haley Durham set a new career-high with eight blocks. Junior Nycole Masaki led the Broncs with 29 assists while junior Krysta Freitas had a team-high 18 digs.
 
Sierra Whittaker led the Cardinals (1-4) with 18 kills while Cortney Moore posted 12. Alexa Johnson recorded a match-high 42 assists, Megan Schwartz had a match-best 22 digs, and Chelsea Grant posted a team-high seven blocks.
 
Beniece Douch had two early kills as the Cardinals took a quick 5-1 first set lead. The Broncs got within one at 6-5 after back-to-back blocks by Durham and Masaki, but the Cardinals used a 6-2 run to go up 12-7. The Broncs again got within one at 14-13, 15-14 and 16-15 before the Cardinals pushed their lead to 22-17. Watson responded with a kill and a block, and then redshirt sophomore Macey Singleton served up an ace to force the Cardinals to take a timeout. After two Cardinals made attack errors, a Watson kill gave the Broncs a 23-22 lead. Watson and Durham combined on a block to make it set point, and then, one serve later, Durham came up with the set-winning kill.
 
The Broncs scored the first five points of the second set, but the Cardinals scored 10 of the next 14 points to take a 10-9 lead on a Madi Martin ace. The Broncs scored the next four to go up 13-10, but the Cardinals scored 15 of the final 21 points of the set to tie the match at 1-1.
 
The Broncs took a big lead early in the third set, going up 14-6. Three kills by Whittaker got the Cardinals to within 16-14, but the Broncs pushed their lead back out to six at 20-14 on a Freitas ace. The Broncs got to set point at 24-20, but a kill, two attack errors and a block tied the set at 24-24. The Broncs again got to set point at 25-24, but a Moore block tied the set. Freshman Anjané Janda came up with a kill to give the Broncs their third set point, and this time, Whittaker made an attack error to give the Broncs a 2-1 lead.

The fourth set was tight early, but tied at 6-6, a pair of Whittaker kills fueled a 6-0 run as the Cardinals pushed the set out of reach.
 
The fifth set was back and forth throughout, with neither team going up by more than two until a kill by Watson and two by Reynolds fueled a 5-0 run to put the Broncs up 13-9. The Cardinals got back to within 13-12 and 14-13 before Reynolds' final kill of the day sealed the win.
 
The Broncs are back in action on Friday at 10 a.m. when they face Jackson State University, and at 4 p.m. when they play the University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff at the Sugar Bear Classic, hosted by the University of Central Arkansas.