The Cougars fought the hardest they had all season in an extra points upset against Southern Miss on Thursday that would turn out to be their last game for 2007.
After advancing to the semifinals of last season’s Conference USA tournament and finding out they were going to play Southern Miss in this year’s opening round, the UH volleyball team had reason to feel good about its chances of advancing to the second round.
Southern Miss (13-21, 3-13 C-USA) had other plans as it took down the Cougars in four games (27-30, 30-21, 28-30, 30-32) at the Cam Henderson Center on the Marshall University Campus.
After losing 10 consecutive regular season conference matches, the Golden Eagles won their final two and used that momentum to pick up the win Thursday.
UH ended the season dropping four of its final five matches.
Freshman middle blocker Lucy Charuk led the Cougars with 15 kills while junior outside hitter Justine Farmer contributed with 14 kills and 12 digs.
Southern Miss senior middle blocker Morgan Johnson led all players with 17 kills and 11 digs.
The Golden Eagles senior outside hitter Amanda Huntoon and sophomore middle hitter Angela Hlavaty also chipped in with 12 and 10 kills, respectively.
Slow starts out of the gate would ultimately be the downfall for the Cougars.
UH was held to a .070 hitting percentage and 13 kills in game one.
Farmer and the Cougars battled back in game two and used an 8-0 run to separate themselves from the Golden Eagles. Farmer finished the game with six kills.
Game three was yet another slow start for the Cougars as Southern Miss came out swinging and scored seven of the game’s first eight points.
UH staged an admirable comeback attempt by tying the game 28-28, but the early deficit proved to be too much as the Golden Eagles scored the game’s final two points.
Down two games to one, UH tried to extend the match and its season. The two teams traded one-point leads throughout the match, but the Cougars ultimately fell in extra points, 30-32.
The opening round loss was the first in the tournament for the Cougars since 2001. UH ends the season with a 13-15 record and 8-8 in conference play.
