The UH volleyball team (12-11, 7-5 Conference USA) is prepared to square off against two opponents that are at opposite ends of the wins spectrum.
Texas-El Paso has lost 16 of its last 18 matches and Tulane has not lost a match since losing in a sweep to Houston on Oct. 12.
The Cougars open the weekend at UTEP (8-17, 2-11) tonight at 7 p.m. and, although the Miners have been down on their luck lately, UH head coach Bill Walton is not worried about his team losing intensity.
"We barely beat them on our home floor," Walton said. "We may have won that day, but we weren’t happy with the way we played. Plus we have the ‘El Paso girl’ on our team and they always want to do well when against her."
The "El Paso girl" is junior outside hitter Justine Farmer, who leads C-USA with 499 kills this season. Farmer recorded a match-high 31 kills to go along with 15 digs on Oct. 14 against UTEP and is looking forward to tonight’s match.
"This is my favorite road trip of the year," Farmer said. "A lot of people I know, including my best friend, play for UTEP. I always get more pumped up to play there than I do here, so it’s going to be fun."
UH outside hitters freshman Hannah Sullivan and sophomore Kinsey Cave were both heavy contributors in the last meeting with 17 kills and 10 kills, respectively.
Sunday at 1 p.m. the Cougars will attempt to cool off a hot Tulane squad (23-5, 11-2) that has won six consecutive matches.
The Cougars have had Tulane’s number the past few seasons winning six consecutive matches dating back to the 2004 season.
"We have a pretty good plan against Tulane and the team does a good job of executing it," Walton said. "The real question is ‘can we duplicate the effort we had here at home earlier this season?’"
Tulane is a perfect 9-0 at Fogelman Arena this season and a big reason for that is junior outside hitter Sara Radosevic.
Radosevic had 17 kills and 14 digs against UH and has averaged just over 20 kills during her team’s latest run.
The Cougars will then have some down time before they wrap up their regular season schedule beginning with SMU on Nov. 9.
