After a lengthy northern road trip during which they lost two games, the Cougars head back home to face Cincinnati in their third American Athletic Conference game. The game starts at 7 p.m. on Thursday at the Carl Lewis International Track & Field Complex.
UH’s loss came against Temple, where it was shut out 2-0, and again against Connecticut in a 4-1 loss. The losses pushed its record to 1-4-3.
Prior to starting conference play, the Cougars’ coaching staff knew that they were in for a challenge. They are facing some teams that the program has never competed against and that are counted among the best in the nation.
“This is a very strong conference from top to bottom and we will need to be ready for each game,” said head coach Chris Pfau in a statement. “Seven out of the ten schools at the beginning of the year were ranked in the top 100 in the country.”
It is no surprise that the Cougars have been challenged this year because of how many changes the program has gone through. They will be happy to head home at the end of the road trip.
“It has been a long time since having a home game and we are excited about being back,” Pfau said.
Robledo nabs monthly award
After earning an individual title and helping lead the Cougars to two top-three team finishes, junior Roman Robledo was named the American Athletic Conference golfer of the month for September.
At the season opening of the Northern Intercollegiate at Rich Harvest Farms, Robledo won the individual title with a 5-under-par 211. He also exited with two top-25 individual finishes during the Golfweek Conference Challenge and the Fighting Irish Gridiron Classic.
Since joining UH, this is the first award for Robledo. However, he was a twice-named member of the C-USA Championships All-Tournament Team, along with being named to the league’s All-Conference USA First Team last season.
Tesfai honored
After a first-place finish at the 2013 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Islander Splash with the 8,000-meter run, junior Yonas Tesfai was named the first American Athletic Conference Cross Country Athlete of the Week on Tuesday.
He finished with a time of 26:31.5 and was followed directly by teammate freshman Brian Barraza, who took second place. Tesfai’s efforts helped UH score a second-place finish with 38 points.
