After posting a 20-12 record last year, the Cougars ended the 2009 regular season 9-22 overall and 6-10 in Conference USA. UH showed some flashes, but a seven-game losing streak early in the season put the Cougars in a deep hole.
There was a ray of hope, though, as the team went on a three-game winning streak between late September and early October. But a subsequent four-game losing streak ended hopes of a winning season in a’ competitive conference.
Head coach Bill Walton said this season was a tough year of transition.
‘It’s been unusual,’ Walton said. ‘Injuries, illness, constantly manipulating the lineup – it was a season of survival.
‘I hope they’ve learned that they’ve got to come to practice everyday, ready to play hard and that you get better in practice. You don’t just come ready to play games.’
Despite the disappointing overall record, the Cougars had some good wins in conference play, and the team’s 6-10 league record was enough to earn the No. 8 seed in the Conference USA Championship.
The downside is that the Cougars will face No.1 seed Southern Miss (26-4, 14-2) in the first round. The tournament begins today at Rice’s Tudor Fieldhouse, with the Cougars’ match scheduled to start at 7 p.m.
Walton said the key’ will be’ consistency, which has been the team’s main problem.
‘We can be really good, and we can be really bad,’ Walton said. ‘We’ve just got to be really good and average. We need to avoid the really bad. If we can do that, we’ll be alright.’
Walton said one reason for the inconsistency is that the team has problems in many areas.
‘We have the best ace-to-error ratio in the conference. We serve well, we serve on our targets and we waste the least amount of serves,’ Walton said. ‘But everything else still needs lots of work.’
The Cougars may seem to be underdogs going against the conference regular-season champion, but when UH lost a tough game to the Golden Eagles on Oct. 16 in Hattiesburg, Miss., the match was closer than the final score indicated.
In the first set, the Cougars were hung with the Golden Eagles, swapping leads several times until the end. The score was tied 21-21 when the Golden Eagles scored four consecutive points to avoid an early deficit.
The Golden Eagles won the second set. Facing a 2-0 deficit, the Cougars could have folded, but bounced back and won the third set before losing the fourth.
However, Walton said preparation will determine the outcome this time.
‘If you were to ask me (how I felt about the tournament) after the first couple of practices this week, I was really excited,’ Walton said. ‘But we’ve had two great practices and one bad practice.’
If the Cougars win, they will play the winner of Rice vs. Marshall at 4 p.m. Saturday. The winner of that contest will then play for the championship at 1 p.m. Sunday.
