HOUSTON – Ashley Lewis set a new career high with 27 kills and the Sam Houston volleyball team rallied to take the final two sets and outlast Houston Baptist, 3-2 (25-22, 22-25, 24-26, 25-15, 15-10) on Thursday night at Sharp Gym.
 
Sam Houston (4-1, 4-1 SLC) dominated the final two sets after being pushed into a corner by HBU (3-6, 2-1 SLC) who itself rallied to stake itself to a 2-1 lead. The win was the fourth in a row for the Kats this season and the fifth straight over HBU since 2017, four of which have gone the full five sets.
 
Lewis was on fire from the beginning, totaling 18 kills through the first three frames before finishing with 27 on 68 swings (.265) to go with 15 digs and three blocks. Morgan Janda also turned in a monster double-double of her own with 33 assists and 21 digs, adding three kills to her total as well.
 
Breanne Chausse delivered 14 kills on 37 tries, while Catherine Krieger needed 29 attempts to pick up 11 kills of her own on a night that saw the Kats hit .170 as a team.
 
HBU finished with an 18-11 advantage at the net, led by 12 total blocks by Ebonie Ballesteros, but the Kats held the edge on the back row with Hannah Baker leading all players with 25 digs while Makensie Garner also finished with 17.
 
The Bearkats hit over .200 in each of the first two sets, but were only able to snag the first set. SHSU held a 20-17 lead late in the second frame before HBU closed on an 8-2 run to even the match at 1-1.
 
Sam Houston was able to erase a big deficit in the third set, but was unable to complete the comeback as HBU held on to go up 2-1 after a 26-24 win. But the Bearkats stormed back, scoring 14 kills to just five for the Huskies in the fourth set, holding HBU to -.031 hitting for a 25-15 win to force a fifth set.
 
The Kats were able to take advantage of a pair of HBU ballhandling errors and an ace from Baker to open up an early 5-2 lead, and a quick 3-0 run that included kills from Janda and Lewis followed, pushing the lead to 10-6. HBU would get back to within two points, but no closer as SHSU scored three of the final four points, including the final on a swing from Krieger.
 
Sam Houston will now return home for the first time since the opening week of the spring with a big match against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on March 4.