By Cody Stark
Assistant Sports Editor

Bearkats volleyball coach Brenda Gray found out what her team was made of Saturday night at the Comfort Suites/SHSU Invitational.

With its back up against the wall, Sam Houston State found a way to bounce back after letting a two games to none lead vanish in the championship game against Louisiana-Lafayette at Johnson Coliseum. The Bearkats regrouped with the match knotted at two sets apiece and sent the Ragin' Cajuns packing with a solid showing in the fifth and deciding game en route to a 25-23, 25-22, 16-25, 13-25 and 15-11 victory to improve to 4-0 on the season.

The tournament championship was Sam Houston State's first since winning the title at the UConn Invitational in 2002.

"We looked like we were drowning during the third and fourth games," Gray said after the match. "It wasn't just one or two people, but everybody was struggling. They kept saying, though, during the timeouts, 'Don't give up. Don't give up.' We have talked all year that this team was never going to give up.

"This group is great to work with. They take everything in that I say. The way they came out in that fifth game showed they really wanted to win this tournament."

Everything was going according to plan Saturday. The Bearkats (4-0) were undefeated and had that 2-0 lead on Louisiana-Lafayette. That's when things started to unravel.

The Ragin' Cajuns (3-1) stormed back and took games three and four against a Sam Houston State squad that all of the sudden looked like it forgot how to play volleyball. Nothing was going right. The shots that were falling earlier in the match stopped finding the Johnson Coliseum floor.

The Ragin' Cajuns jumped out to quick leads, 10-2 in game three and 10-1 in the fourth set, and there was nothing Sam Houston could do to answer.

But during the three minute break before the start of the fifth game, the Bearkats didn't panic. They came out firing and took a 4-3 advantage on a spike by Carli Kolbe. Sam Houston never trailed again.

Kolbe, a sophomore outside hitter from College Station, and freshman Kaylee Hawkins from Dickinson took over the match at that point. Kolbe had two thundering kills to seal the match and Hawkins cranked out dig after dig, which kept the Ragin' Cajuns from rallying.

"We just didn't doubt ourselves," Kolbe said. "Kaylee was playing back row and it was just amazing to watch her. Everybody refused to lose, which we haven't done in a while. It feels really good."

Kolbe led the Bearkats with 16 kills and senior Anna Ferguson added 14. Jamie Haas had 13 digs, while Courtney Laskowski finished with 11 and Kelli Stewart chipped in 10 to go along with seven spikes.

Ferguson was named the tournament's most valuable player and Kolbe and Stewart were tabbed to the all-tournament team.

The first two games went back and forth. Whenever one team would try to pull away, the other would come right back and tie it up.

The Bearkats finally pulled away down the stretch with a kill by Kolbe sealing the first game and Ferguson knocking down the winner in the second set.

"We came out really flat in the third game and weren't doing the things we did in the first two games," Loving said. "We weren't communicating. But we came out in the fifth game and were ready to win. We put it to them and it is awesome being undefeated."

The all-tournament team consisted of Noelle Mayor of UTPA, Analaine Pelaez of Southern Utah, Ariel Krolikowski and Bethany Fogler of ULL and Kolbe, Stewart and Ferguson from Sam Houston. Ferguson was named "Most Valuable Player" for the event

OTHER ACTION FROM THE TOURNAMENT

UTPA 3, DELAWARE ST 1

Noelle Mayor totaled 12 kills and Marci Logan added 11 to lead Texas-Pan American to a 16-25 25-23 25-19 25-19 victory over Delaware State to earn the Broncs their first victory of the season.

UTPA ended 1-3 for the tournament. Delaware State was 0-4. The Hornets were led by Cassandra Joyner with 12 kills and Erica Tajchman with 10.

LOUISIANA-LAFAYETTE 3, SOUTHERN UTAH 0

The Ragin' Cajuns remained unbeaten in the Invitational with a 25-19 25-18 25-22 victory over Southern Utah in match eight of the tournament Saturday.

Ariel Krolikowski led Louisiana-Lafayette with 11 kills. Amie Goodwin and Bethany Fogler each had six. Analaine Pelaez led SUU with nine kills.

Southern Utah, playing volleyball for the first time in 20 years, finished the tournament 2-2.

SAM HOUSTON 3, DELAWARE STATE 0

HUNTSVILLE -- Carli Kolbi totaled 17 kills and Kelli Stewart added 10 as Sam Houston State defeated Delaware State 25-20 25-14 28-26 to remain undefeated in the Comfort Suites / SHSU volleyball tournament Saturday morning.  

The Bearkats had to rally from a 13-9 deficit in the first set and stave off four set points by the Hornets in the third frame to win in three. Erica Tajchman led Delaware State with nine kills.  

Sam Houston will play Louisiana-Lafayette for the tournament championship at 7 p.m. Saturday night.   During the three sets, the match was tied 29 times with 14 lead changes.

SOUTHERN UTAH 3, UTPA 1

Southern Utah fought off a UTPA rally to close out a 25-22 25-15 20-25 28-26 victory to start action on day two.

The Thunderbirgs rolled to wins in the first two sets, but dropped the third and were down 22-17 in the fourth.

Analaine Pelaez led SUU with 15 kills and Jasmine Ma'afala totaled 13. Marci Logan posted 12 kills for the Broncs. Southern Utah stands 2-1 in the tournament while UTPA is 0-3.

The complete schedule for the Comfort Suites/SHSU Invitational: