Houston extended its home winning streak to six games with a 3-0 victory over Conference USA opponent Southern Miss on Saturday night at the Athletics/Alumni Center.
The Cougars improved to 13-8 (5-3 C-USA) while maintaining a perfect record at home. Senior outside hitter Justine Farmer paced the Cougars with 12 kills as Houston swept Southern Miss in three sets (25-17, 26-24, 25-19).
"Everybody did something really good today," Farmer said. "I didn’t have to do much. It was nice."
Houston head coach Bill Walton said defense and blocking are key to winning, and the Cougars took advantage of the Golden Eagles’ .184 attack percentage and four service errors to record 12 blocks in three sets, finishing with a .343 attack percentage in the win.
"Our goal is for our team to average four blocks a game," Walton said.
The Cougars went on an 8-point run in the first set with the game tied at 5 and never relinquished the lead, winning 25-17. Houston and Southern Miss battled to a 24-24 tie in the middle match, but freshman outside hitter Ingrida Zauere gave the Cougars a 25-24 advantage and juniors right side hitter Kinsey Cave and middle blocker Erin Rice ended the set with a block giving the Cougars a 26-24 win.
In the third set, Houston held a slight 17-16 lead over the Golden Eagles, but went on a 8-2 run to win the final set 25-19.
Senior setter Kelsey King had 33 assists, and sophomore middle blocker Lucy Charuk chipped in with 11 kills.
Southern Miss senior outside hitters Stevi Cherry led the Golden Eagles with 14 kills while Ashley Petrinec added 8 kills and 9 digs in the loss. Southern Miss dropped to 13-9 and 3-6 in C-USA play.
"It was good for us coming back from a crazy game last night to come back and be solid today," Farmer said.
Farmer was referring to Houston’s five-set thriller over Central Florida on Friday night (23-25, 25-20, 21-25, 26-24, 15-10).
Although three Knights finished with double-doubles against the Cougars, Houston survived UCF with a season-high 26 kills from Farmer and a team season-high 20 blocks in the match while Charuk added 12 block assists.
Farmer got some much-needed help in the win with 14 kills from Zauere and 13 from Charuk while King finished with 60 assists.
Houston led UCF 16-11 in the first set, but the Knights came back to take the set 25-23.
The Cougars took the early 11-1 lead in the second set and went on to win 25-20 and even the series, but the Knights won the third set 25-23 to take the 2-1 advantage.
Houston came back from a 17-12 deficit in the fourth set to win 26-24, and force a fifth set against the Knights. In the final set, Charuk recorded four kills to give the Cougars the 15-10 victory.
UCF sophomore outside hitter Janine Williams led the Golden Knights with 17 kills and 11 digs for her fifth double-double of the season, while junior outside hitter Erin Campbell recorded her eighth consecutive double-double, adding 16 kills and 12 digs. Senior outside hitter Stephanie Serna also had 14 kills and a .407 attack percentage for her 12th straight double-double.
Houston continues conference play at Rice at 7 p.m. Tuesday.
