HOUSTON, Texas – In the first match of the season, the ORU Golden Eagles (0-1) fell to the Lamar Cardinals (1-0) in five hard-fought games, losing 19-30, 30-26, 32-30, 24-30, 11-15. This was the first match of the Mizuno Invitational I held at Rice University.

Junior Carol Garbato (Sao Paulo, Brazil) started her season off with a bang, registering a career-best 28 digs for the match, while junior Jackie Oliveira (Minas Gerais, Brazil) tied her career-best of four service aces.

In game one, the Golden Eagles looked as if they couldn't avoid opening jitters, falling behind early. ORU was able to tie the game early on, 4-4, but that was as close as they would come, falling 19-30. Oliveira would finish game one, tallying three kills off of six attempts.

The Golden Eagles fell behind early in game two, 5-0, but fought back with the help of the newcomers. Janete Ferriera (Sao Paulo, Brazil) recorded six kills for the Golden Eagles in game two, while Jocelyn Swier (Ripon, Calif.) added two kills and Juliane Vieira tallied 38 assists to snag game two from the Cardinals, 30-26.

ORU raced to a 5-1 advantage in game three with the help of a Nicole Weis (Carrollton, Texas) kill and Oliveira kill and three-straight attack errors by Lamar. The Cardinals would fight back and the back and forth battle would continue until Lamar's Andrea Hamilton dropped two service aces, giving the cardinals a 23-19 advantage. ORU would answer with five-straight points and would never look back, taking game three, 32-30.

Game four was much of the same, with Lamar taking the early lead 3-1 off of ORU attack errors, but the Golden Eagles would fight back to tie the game at 7-7 with the help of three JoJo Souza kills. That would be as close as ORU would come as the Cardinals held the lead the remainder of the match with the help of Lauren Holdorff's, Courtney Mitchell's and Meagan Adams' three kills a piece. Lamar took game four, 30-24.

The Cardinals would start game five like the previous four, taking a 4-1 lead before a Danijela Novakovic (Rijeka, Croatia) kill. Lamar would lead as much as six points before ORU fought back. With the help of Lamar's serving errors, a Novakovic kill and an Oliveira solo block, ORU would climb as close as 10-13 before Lamar shut the lid on the Golden Eagles season opener, taking a 15-11 win.

ORU returns to action Saturday morning at 10:30 a.m., as they take on Louisiana Tech in day two of the Mizuno Invitational.

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