The Cougars will head to Dallas and Tulsa, Okla. in their final road trip of the regular season as they attempt to add Conference USA wins against the SMU Mustangs and Tulsa Golden Hurricane to their record.
Houston (14-10, 6-5 C-USA) is looking to recover from a tough five-set loss to Tulane on Sunday at the Athletics/Alumni Center in a match the Cougars led after three sets.
Tulane battled back to win the fourth set and force a final set, and the Green Wave’s 8-1 run at the beginning of the fifth set was too devastating for the Cougars to overcome.
"I should have adjusted and put us in our best three rotations," UH head coach Bill Walton said after the Cougars dropped the deciding set against Tulane 15-9.
The Cougars will play their second match of the year against SMU (12-13, 4-7 C-USA) on Friday. In their last meeting on Oct. 4, Houston defeated the Mustangs 3-1 at home.
SMU middle blocker Natalie Peters recorded 16 kills in a Sunday match against East Carolina, and is also the leader in career block assists (380) at SMU. Sophomore outside hitter Kathryn Wilkerson leads the Mustangs with 287 kills this year.
On Saturday, the Cougars will face off against Tulsa (20-6, 7-4 C-USA) for the second time this season after beating them 3-0 at home on Oct 3.
Tulsa is riding a three-game win streak led by C-USA players of the week junior outside hitter Jennifer Eichler and freshman setter Rachel Vukson. Eichler has recorded a team-high 334 kills, and Vukson leads the team with 791 assists and 22 services aces. Tulsa has six players with more than 100 kills this season.
Houston is led by senior outside hitter Justine Farmer, who has 349 kills this season, and sophomore middle blocker Lucy Charuk, who is ranked 20th in the nation with 122 total blocks this season.
Senior setter Kelsey King has a team-high 985 assists and 10.71 assists per set, which ranks fourth in C-USA. Sophomore defensive standout Amanda Carson is one of six Cougars with more than 100 digs on the team and leads the squad with 281.
Houston will return home for three games to close out the regular season.
