UH volleyball dominates on the road

The members of the Cougar volleyball team proved to be road warriors as they swept their opponents in the UT-Arlington/Holiday Day Inn Invitational over the weekend.

The Cougars (6-5) spent three weekends on the road to begin the 2008 season and were scheduled to play their first home game against Lamar on Wednesday, but had to cancel the game after Hurricane Ike. The Cougars were also scheduled to host the Flo Hyman Invitational at the Athletics/Alumni Center over the weekend, but cancelled the tournament because damage caused by Hurricane Ike made travel to Houston difficult.

Despite a surprise fourth weekend on the road, the Cougars swept host Texas-Arlington (4-10) on Saturday with scores of 25-13, 25-8 and 25-21 to complete their 2-0 record in the tournament.

Houston dominated the Mavericks in the first two sets. After trailing 4-5 early in the first set, the Cougars went on a 4-0 run to regain the lead 8-5. Houston followed with another 4-0 run later in the set to pull out to a 19-10 lead and cemented the 25-13 victory with a third 4-point run against the Mavericks.

Houston jumped out to a 9-1 start in the second set, holding the Mavericks to just eight points, making it the second time they’ve held an opponent to single-digit scores in a set this season. In August, the Cougars held Chattanooga to just three points as they beat them 25-3.

The Mavericks played the Cougars to a 20-20 tie late in the third set, but Houston held on for its third consecutive match win.

The Mavericks had just 22 kills in the match, the lowest total Houston has allowed this year. They were led by redshirt freshman middle blocker Christy Driscoll, who recorded five kills against Houston.

Senior outside hitter Justine Farmer led the Cougars with 12 kills while freshman outside hitter Ingrid Zauere finished with just one less than Farmer, with 11 kills in the match.

Sophomore defensive specialist Amanda Carson had four service aces against the Mavericks and six against Arkansas-Little Rock, the most in a single match in UH history. She leads the team with 25 aces on the season.

The Cougars began the tournament with a hard-fought sweep (25-13, 25-21, 25-23) against the Arkansas-Little Rock Trojans (11-2), who had entered the tournament on a six-game win streak.

The Cougars jumped out to an early 3-1 lead in the first set and went on a 5-0 run to make the lead 7-2, eventually winning by 12 points.

In the second set, the Cougars and Trojans tied 10 times and changed leads five times, but Farmer added seven kills to give the Cougars the win. Houston never fell behind in the third set and defeated the Trojans by two points for the match win.

Farmer had 17 kills against the Trojans and Zauere had 10. Houston is 3-1 against the Trojans and has won the last two meetings between the schools.

As a result of the cancelled games, Houston will not play its first home game of the season until the Cougars face Sam Houston State at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Athletic/Alumni Center. Students are admitted to the game free with a valid CougarOne card.