The Cougars were able avoid a losing streak with a win Wednesday night against the Tulane Green Wave (5-20, 3-10). After dropping both of their matches last weekend, Houston improves to 12-13, with a 4-9 record in conference play.
Despite shaky second and third sets, the Cougars came back to snap their two-game losing streak as they defeated the Tulane Green Wave in five sets. | Justin Tijerina/The Cougar
The much-needed win came in a nail-biter that went into the fifth set, as the team outlasted the Green Wave 3-2 (25-15, 19-25, 26-24, 25-17 and 15-13).
Houston was on top from the opening whistle of the first set and was up 10-2 before Tulane knew it.
Everything was working for the Cougars in the first, starting with a huge set by redshirt junior outside hitter Kadi Kullerkann, who tallied 8 of the teams 15 kills for a .385 hitting average. Her 26 total kills pushes her double-digit kill streak to 25 consecutive games.
The game changed in the 2nd set however, as all of the momentum that UH had completely flipped in Tulane’s favor. The same errors that plagued the Green Wave found their way to the Cougars’ bench.
They fought hard at the end, but the point spread was too much to overcome and Houston fell in the second set.
After that, UH fought to keep a tight set in the third, but the offense could not get much going, and communication mistakes on defense led to gaping holes that Tulane took full advantage of.
Down 2-1 headed into the fourth set, the Cougars were able to rally back with very strong defense along the net. Several players were able to disrupt plays and get quick points off deflections, tallying a season high 13 blocks on the night.
“We worked a lot on reading Tulane, and what they were going to do. We knew a lot of their hitter tendencies,” said senior middle blocker Kaiti Waters.
Head coach Kaddie Platt credited the defensive play to the strong serving game the Cougars put together.
“When you serve aggressively, then they have to go one direction and we can have more hands in front of them,” Platt said.
With their defensive woes of the early match turned around, Houston was able to play much more aggressively, forcing 10 attacking errors by Tulane to take the set, and push the game to a decisive fifth set.
Once there, the Cougars would not be denied and closed the match with the same high intensity and fight that they came into the game with.
With a long road ahead, the team doesn’t have a lot of room for error, but the players are up to the challenge.
“We are determined to win all eight in a row, and finish the season undefeated,” Waters said with enthusiasm.
Next, the Cougars will head to Greenville, N.C. for a match-up with the East Carolina Pirates (11-11, 3-9) Friday night.
