Conference play continues to be good to the UH volleyball (8-6) team after improving to 3-0 this season with wins this past weekend against Central Florida and Southern Mississippi.
UH will not take the court again until Thursday when they travel 5.6 miles down the road to play Rice.
They will be trying to go 4-0 in conference and extend their winning streak to six.
Last season Southern Miss was responsible for ending Houston’s streak of 11 consecutive wins at home.
This year no such streak was stopped by the Golden Eagles and junior outside hitter Justine Farmer made sure of it with a career high 36 kills (28-30, 30-25, 30-26, and 30-22).
The Cougars fell behind early after dropping a close first game.
UH trailed for most of the game and was down 19-25. Houston battled back to make it 28-29 when Farmer put down one of her six kills, but did not get closer and allowed Southern Miss. to take the early advantage.
Houston would gain the momentum in game two and never relinquish it to USM.
The Cougars never trailed after a kill by freshman middle blocker Malia Vavao made it 20-13 and forced Southern Miss to call a timeout.
USM got as close as 27-24, but late kills by Farmer and sophomore outside hitter Ashley Calhoun gave UH the win.
Farmer had 18 kills through the first two games and the match was knotted at one game apiece.
After taking game three, the Cougars would fall behind early in the fourth 6-11 and forced head coach Bill Walton to call a timeout.
After the break, a refocused UH team battled back to tie the game 12-12 on a kill by freshman outside hitter Hannah Sullivan, and took the lead on the following possession on a kill by Farmer.
The teams would trade points all the way to 20-20 when the Cougars started to pull away and scored 10 of the match’s final 12 points.
Farmer had a double-double in the fourth game alone by notching 11 digs and 10 kills. Farmer also finished with a match-high 21 digs.
Two days prior to beating Southern Miss, the Cougars made a trip to Orlando, Fla. and wasted little time beating Central Florida.
The match was Houston’s first in conference away from home this season (30-19, 30-26, and 30-17).
Game one was tight until Houston pulled away with a 9-3 run, which was too much for the Golden Knights to sustain.
After failing behind late in game two, Houston called a timeout and came back to scoring the next five points.
The last game was a nightmare for UCF as they allowed the Cougars a 17-point lead, 27-10. The Cougars closed out the match 30-17.
UH now holds a 4-0 advantage in the all-time series against Central Florida.
Sullivan was big for the Cougars as she added 11 kills to just one hitting error.
Farmer recorded a game high 15 kills and junior setter Kelsey King had team highs of 27 assists and nine digs.
