Senior libero Katie Karbo finished her home career at Houston with a match-high 29 digs in the Cougars’ 3-1 loss Friday night at Fertitta Center. | Trevor Nolley/The Cougar
With six seniors being sent off in their last home game for the Cougars, Houston fell 3-1 to Tulane on Friday night at Fertitta Center.
Ryan Emmert, Abby Giles, Kylie Napoleon, Claire Karsten, Megan Duncan and Katie Karbo were honored before their final home game at UH.
The Cougars started off the match on their heels as the Green Wave jumped out in front early behind a stiff defense, which tallied two blocks in the opening moments of the set that helped build a 14-7 lead.
Houston slowly clawed its way back into the set and found themselves in multiple standstills where the set was tied.
The Cougars did not capitalize on opportunities they had to steal the set away from the Green Wave, and a big part was due to the 14 errors they committed.
Tulane won the first set 28-26.
The second set began with the Green Wave getting an early four to one advantage that the Cougars were able to make up, tying the set at eight.
The Green Wave, however, stayed poised with the one set advantage in their pockets and were in front for much of the set like they did in the first.
With the set tied at 21, Tulane scored four of the next five points, including the final kill by junior outside hitter Lexie Douglas, to give them a commanding 2-0 advantage.
In the third set, the Cougars jumped to an 11-4 lead.
Tulane responded with eight of the next nine points to tie the set at 12 apiece until freshman middle blocker Rachel Tullos stopped the bleeding with a kill, which sparked a three-point run for Houston.
UH’s opposition, however, remained persistent, refusing to let the set slip away as they stayed within two points of Houston until the Cougars went on another scoring run that gave them a five-point lead.
An attack error from the Green Wave gave the Cougars their final point of the set; UH won the third set 25-21.
Tulane was in control to begin the fourth set as Houston was forced to play catch-up ball. Although Houston was never too far back, Tulane’s grasp on the lead never weakened and they pulled away late to win the fourth set 25-17.
Houston finished the match with 48 kills, 10 aces, eight total blocks, 45 assists and 75 digs.
Duncan led the team with 13 kills; sophomore setter Kelsey Childers led the team with 39 assists.
Karbo led the Cougars with four aces and a match-high 29 digs.
On defense, Tullos led the Cougars with five blocks; Karbo also led the Cougars with 29 digs.
The Cougars play again on Sunday afternoon against the Huskies where they will look to close out their final home game of the regular season with a win.
