Volleyball team takes beating in home tournament

The Cougars continued a rough start to open up the season at the Houston Invitational with losses to tough opponents No.17 Tennessee, Oklahoma and No.13 Florida State over the weekend.

UH finished off the tournament with a 3-0 (13-25, 17-25, 22-25) loss to Tennessee.

“I thought we played extremely well at times,” head coach Molley Alvey said. “Tennessee is a very good team and they run their system well. Their offense is very fast and I think that we competed extremely well against them.”

UH played their best against Tennessee in the third set after falling down 2-0. The Cougars carried some momentum late into the set, leading it 22-21, but the Volunteers edged the Cougars with a 4-1 run to end the set and tournament.

Chandace Tryon had her best game of the season with eight kills, while Amber Brooks paced the Cougars with 22 assists. Amanda Carson had another solid defensive game with 13 digs.

In the early game Saturday afternoon the Cougars played their best game of the tournament against Oklahoma in a 3-2 defeat. UH fell behind 2-0, but won sets three and four to force a deciding set five.

“I think team effort in sets three, four and five were excellent. I think it showed how well we can play when we decide to. I think the next step is to take those last three sets and continue to build on them and get better,” Alvey said.

UH had a 10-7 lead in the fifth and deciding set looking to finish off the Sooners and get the comeback win, but the Sooners rallied to score six of the next eight points to take a 13-12 lead. The Cougars tied it at 13, but Oklahoma finished off the win scoring the final two points to win 15-13.

UH provided a balanced scoring effort against the Sooners with three players recording double-digit kills led by Ingrida Zauere and Lucy Charuk with 11. Stephanie Nwachukwu chipped in with 10 kills.

In Friday night’s game UH ran into a tough Florida State team dropping the match 3-0 (25-19, 25-19, 25-13) despite 12 kills from Charuk and 30 assists from Brooks. Even with the team’s 0-3 effort, Charuk was named to her second consecutive all-tournament team with 29 total kills.

“As a whole, I think we come away a better team and that’s all I can ask for. As long as we get better I think we are setting ourselves up for a successful season,” Alvey said.