On the last day of the Flo Hyman Collegiate Cup, UH volleyball battled with Oregon State on its way to five-set victory, marking head coach David Rehr’s 600th career collegiate win.
Beginning the match with vigor, the Beavers matched every kill from the Cougars with one of their own, keeping the game in close quarters.
Just as UH began to take over, benefitting from three Oregon State errors, the Cougars began to make errors of their own, leading the scoreboard to tighten up 18-17. This forced UH to call a time-out.
Senior outside hitter Abbie Jackson stepped up to control the game, recording four kills to give the Cougars a 25-18 first-set victory.
Oregon State led early on in set two but a few kills from Jackson and a block by senior middle blocker Rachel Tullos and Jackson tied the game 11-11, forcing an Oregon State timeout.
Coming out of the timeout strong, UH senior setter Morgan Janda served an ace, bumping UH into the lead.
Following Janda’s service ace, Oregon State never recovered. UH finished the second set with a win of 25-19, putting the Cougars just one set away from victory.
Oregon State started set three with aggression, forcing a UH timeout after going up 9-4.
The Cougars began to close the gap thanks to a service ace from sophomore libero Bryshanna Brown, but the Beavers quickly follow up with a service ace of their own.
Tullos, Jackson, and graduate middle blocker Isabel Theut helped UH finally take the lead 26-25.
One point away from winning the match, Theut made an error, tying things back up.
Oregon State used the error to their advantage and quickly regains their lead, ending the third set with its first victory of the game, 28-26.
UH began set four with an error, but with the help of a kill from Jackson and two errors from Oregon State, the Cougars held a small lead.
Widening the gap, four kills from Theut and one from sophomore middle blocker Kellen Morin extended the UH lead to 9-7.
The Beavers followed with three kills combined with a UH error to catapult into an 11-10 lead.
Trying to make a comeback, a kill from Jackson tied up the game, but Oregon State soon returned the favor. Junior setter Annie Cooke service ace tied things up at 17-17.
The set remained close but Oregon State did just enough to win the fourth set 25-23.
Going into the fifth and final set, four Oregon State errors quickly propelled the Cougars ahead 5-0.
The Beavers recovered from their slow start, tying the set 9-9 after a blocking error from Theut.
Unwilling to back down, UH bumped the score to 11-10 after two kills from graduate outside hitter Kennedy Warren.
Oregon State was never able to close the gap, as Jackson hit two kills to seal a 15-13 UH victory and improve the Cougars to a perfect 3-0 in the Flo Hyman Collegiate Cup.