Sports Volleyball

Volleyball confronts two conference foes on the road

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The volleyball team will try to secure their first road win of the season when they take on SMU and Tulsa over the weekend. | Justin Cross/The Cougar

After a heartbreaking loss to the University of Memphis last Friday, the volleyball team is returning to action this weekend with matches against SMU 7 p.m. on Friday and Tulsa 1 p.m. on Sunday.

Still looking for their first conference win, the Cougars (5-16, 0-10) will try to hold back a Mustang (16-6, 9-1) team that won four straight and is holding opponents to a .163 hitting percentage.

Freshman outside hitter Faith Squier has been on a tear since starting her first match against Cincinnati, totaling a team-high 42 kills over the four-game stretch.

Not far behind is junior outside hitter Sarah Afflerbaugh, who added 36 of her team-high 205 kills over the stretch.

In their first meeting of the season the Mustangs got the best of the Cougars 3-0 (17-25, 7-25, 14-25).

The Cougars will have to contend with Mustang junior outside hitter Katie Hegarty, whose 3.81 kills per set are fourth in the American Athletic Conference.

The Mustangs also feature a plethora of conference statistical leaders with freshman setter Kendall Patterson, senior middle blocker Janelle Giordano and senior libero Morgan Heise leading in assists, blocks and digs, respectively.

After the match in Dallas, the Cougars will travel to Tulsa, Oklahoma to face a Golden Hurricane team that has lost seven straight and is 13-9 overall despite being just 2-8 in conference.

The Golden Hurricane has been playing better than their record indicates, leading the conference with 18.29 digs per set and playing the second most sets in the conference.

Sunday’s match against Tulsa represents a high chance for Houston to end their losing streak as the first match between the teams went to the wire.

Golden Hurricane senior outside hitter Erica Bohannon currently leads the team and is sixth in the conference with 3.63 kills per set, totaling 312 while hitting .193.

After being down 2-1, the Golden Hurricane rallied back against the Cougars, holding them to .046 hitting percentage over the final two sets to win 3-2 (25-16, 18-25, 25-18, 18-25, 7-15).

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