What began as a promising week ended up being anything but for the UH volleyball team.
After starting their road trip with a dramatic win over University of Texas at San Antonio, the team traveled to San Marcos for the Century Tel-Premier where they failed to win a single match and fell to 3-6 on the season.
The Cougars were pushed to the limit against UTSA, and recorded their second consecutive five-game victory. (30-27, 28-30, 21-30, 30-26, 18-16).
UH began the match much like their last against Cal-State Bakersfield. The team won the opening game only to drop the next two.
Junior captain and outside hitter Justine Farmer would not let her team lose. She would go on to finish the match with a high of 34 kills and tie a team-high in digs with 19 – her third double-double of the season.
Freshman middle blocker Lucy Charuk continued her stellar play as she recorded 17 kills and a .467 hitting percentage.
UTSA was led by freshman outside hitter Kendra Rowland, who put down 29 kills, and junior defensive specialist Audrey Hiser, who had 27 digs in a losing effort.
The Cougars would go into their first match of the Century Tel-Premier 3-3 and would try to go over .500 for the first time all season.
The Cougars began the tournament against host Texas State. The Bobcats won the match 30-25, 30-27, 21-30, and 30-23.
Losing the first two games proved to be too much for UH to rally back from. Junior middle blocker Amy Weigle led Texas State with 15 kills on a .440 hitting percentage. Junior middle blocker Emily Jones and sophomore outside hitter Jessica Weynand contributed with 12 kills and 11 kills, respectively.
Farmer recorded her third straight double-double with 23 kills and 18 digs. Charuk had another good match with 12 kills and sophomore middle blocker Erin Rice had six kills.
The day was not over for UH as they would play their second match of the day and third Big 12 opponent of the year when they went against Missouri. Houston shot out of the gates quickly with a win in the first game (31-29).
That lead was short-lived as the Cougars dropped the next three games (22-30, 15-30, 21-30).
Senior middle blocker Na Yang paced Missouri with 19 kills.
The Cougars got help from sophomore middle blocker Erin Rice, who had a season-high 13 kills.
The last match of the tournament was against Cal-State Fullerton, fresh off a three-game winning streak.
UH won the first game and looked to foil any plans CSF had of extending its win streak.
After winning the first game, the Cougars would do what was becoming all too familiar and fail to win another game (29-31, 33-31, 29-31, 15-30).
The first three games could have gone to either team as they were all forced to extra points.
Junior middle blocker Brittany Moore led the Titans with 21 kills while junior outside hitter Jennifer Francisco and sophomore middle blocker Alex Wolnisty recorded 13 kills a piece.
Charuk had 15 kills and earned a spot on the All-Tournament Team.
Charuk finished the weekend with 39 kills on 96 attempts and four digs in the Cougars’ three matches.
UH is now home and will get some much deserved rest before having to play their next match Thursday against Conference USA rival Rice.
