UH volleyball finished the LSU Tiger Classic strong as the Cougars beat Samford in straight sets on Saturday afternoon in Baton Rogue, Lousiana.
UH jumped out to an early 9-3 lead in the first set off of two kills and a service ace from senior outside hitter Abbie Jackson. Samford closed the gap making it 15-14 at the first timeout.
Despite two errors from Samford, the Cougars relinquished their lead before calling a timeout down 18-17.
The timeout evidently helped UH, as three straight kills from graduate student outside hitter Kortlyn Henderson and a service ace from sophomore libero Bryshanna Brown put the Cougars up 21-18, leading Samford to call its own timeout.
UH then held off Samford the rest of the way to win the first set 25-23. Junior setter Annie Cooke led the team in assists with 10 going into the second set.
The two teams went back and forth to begin the second set before UH went on 5-1 run including two service aces from junior libero Kate Georgiades to make it 8-5.
Later on in the set, two straight kills from grad student middle blocker Isabel Theut aided in a 4-0 UH run to enter the first timeout of the set with a 15-10 lead.
The Cougars pulled away to win the set 25-14 thanks to four Samford errors and two kills from Jackson down the stretch putting UH two sets to none entering the third.
The score was knotted at 10 in the third set after six ties and three lead changes before two assists and a kill from Cooke allowed UH to once again lead 15-10 before the first media timeout.
Samford came out of the timeout firing, quickly going on a 4-0 run, but the Cougars responded with a run of their own with help from a block assist and kill by senior middle blocker Rachel Tullos, going up 21-17 before a Samford timeout.
A Samford service error put the game at match point before Brown finished the Bulldogs off with an ace to win the third set 25-21. With the win over Samford in straight sets, UH finished the LSU Tiger Classic at 2-1.