Fiona Legesse/The Cougar
Like the weather around campus, the Cougars volleyball team got off to a hot start in its first week of the season, where it won all three matches at the University of New Orleans Invitational.
The Cougars started the tournament with two matches on Friday against Murray State and host New Orleans.
In its opening match, Houston swept Murray State in three sets, winning each one by comfortable margins.
In the opening set, the Cougars cruised to a 25-13 win, scoring off 14 kills, while holding the Racers to just six. The second set was closer, but Houston won 25-18, with a .406 hitting percentage.
Sophomore Silvia Pertens led the Cougars in kills in the second set with four while senior Chenelle Walker added three of her own. Houston ended the set with 15 kills, with seven different players earning at least one.
The Riders made 11 errors in the third set and the Cougars rolled to victory 25-19 to complete the sweep.
The second match of the double-header was the Cougars’ toughest and it had to play the Privateers to five sets.
UH began the match in great form and won both of the first two sets 25-20 and 25-23, respectively. However, UNO charged back and won the next two sets, 25-20 and 25-23 to tie the match.
Between the two sets, the Cougars recorded 27 kills, but only had .195 and .056 hitting percentages.
Houston ultimately prevailed in the fifth set with a 15-11 win and junior Megan Duncan led the team with 22 kills through the five sets.
In the third and final game of the weekend, Houston took on the University of Nebraska-Omaha and earned its second sweep of the tournament.
However, Houston did not breeze to victory like it did in the match against Murray State.
The opening set went into extra points, which UH ultimately won 33-31. Houston had a tournament high 22 kills in the opening set and Duncan led the squad with eight.
The second set was highlighted by 11 Omaha errors, with the other 14 points of the set all coming from kills.
In the third set, the Cougars were down 22-18, but rallied back with five points in a row, four from Omaha errors, to take the lead. The final point came from an ace by senior Katie Krebs, one of two aces the Cougars scored in the set.
Houston is now 3-0 this season, and has its first home match on Tuesday against Prairie View A&M at the Athletics and Alumni Center.
