It has been just over a month since the Cougars were handed their worst loss of the season courtesy of first-place Tulsa.
When UH rode into Oklahoma on Sept. 30, they were tied with the Golden Hurricane for first in Conference USA, and were enjoying the momentum of a five-match winning streak.
Three quick sets later, the winning streak was broken.
In a single match, Tulsa asserted themselves to the top of C-USA, and have done little since to change that dominance.
Currently tied for second place with UAB and Rice, UH (17-8, 10-5 C-USA) will welcome the Golden Hurricane to the Athletics/Alumni Center on Sunday for their final regular-season meeting. For the Cougars, the match will carry significant conference implications as the regular season comes to a close.
“I think our practice this week is really important,” middle blocker Lucy Charuk said. “So far it’s gone really well. All the drills have been really intense.”
The Cougars are looking forward after having their nine-game home win streak snapped in the first of two matches against Marshall last weekend.
“We’ve forgotten about last weekend, and put the pressure off ourselves, and that’ll really help us for the weekend.”
Among the points of emphasis head coach Molly Alvey stressed during the week’s practice sessions, serving and passing have been given the most attention.
“Coach tells us all the time, ‘serving and passing wins games’,” Charuk said. “So as long as we can
stay sharp with our aggressive serves, and keep our passes strong the better we’ll be in games, and the easier our offensive can run.”
After a strong non-conference season, the Golden Hurricane (23-5, 14-1) have swept through C-USA opponents in unrelenting fashion. In 14 matches, Tulsa has recorded a three-set sweep in all about two tries, most recently against SMU for their first loss of the season.
The Golden Hurricane currently rank first in hitting percentage, .293 per match, and assists, 13.92 per match in C-USA.
“We can’t let the standings, or where everybody else is affect us too much,” Charuk said. “We just need to win out the rest of the season.
“We need to worry about what we can take care of, and not what the rest of conference is doing.”
