The Cougars will have a chance to validate their two-game winning streak with a pair of road games this weekend.
UH (9-19, 6-7 Conference USA) travels to El Paso for an 8 p.m. matchup with UTEP (10-16, 3-10) today and then goes to New Orleans for a 1 p.m. match with Tulane (15-7, 10-3) Sunday.
The Cougars are coming off their best stretch of the season with home victories over Marshall (19-7, 7-5), and East Carolina (9-16, 2-11). The winning streak is UH’s second longest of the season behind a three-game stretch from Sept. 26 to Oct. 3.
While the wins could be another sign of the team’s inconsistency, setter Alik Cardoso de Sa said they are signs that the team is improving.
‘I think they were great wins,’ Cardoso de Sa said. ‘We’ve been improving a lot; our sideout percentage has been improving. (The wins are) going to help our confidence for the next games, and then we’re looking to win the three games we have left and hopefully qualify for the (C-USA) tournament, and hopefully win the tournament.’
Junior libero Amanda Carson said the streak also improved the team’s morale.
‘It just gives us confidence that we’re going to go into this weekend and get a win,’ Carson said.
Despite the challenges the team went through, the players continue to persevere.
‘We’ve had our struggles, but I think that our team has worked hard to get better and improve,’ Carson said.
Although’ this team has grown up throughout the season, there are still areas in which they need to improve. Carson said the key to this weekend would be to maintain the service-reception game.
‘We need to work on our serve-receive part of the game,’ Carson said. ‘If we do well with that, I think we have a good chance of winning.’
After this weekend, the Cougars have one regular season match left, against Rice at 7 p.m. Nov. 12 at Autry Court. The Cougars will then have a week off before the Conference USA Championships begin Nov. 20.
