After dropping the season opener to Rice, UH volleyball has rattled off eight straight victories. | Courtesy of UH athletics
Going a perfect 3-0 at the Maroon & White Invite in Starkville, Mississippi over the weekend, UH volleyball extended its winning streak to eight games and improved to 8-1 overall on the season.
Here’s a closer look at how each match went:
Friday
UH opened up play at the Maroon & White Invite against South Alabama.
After the Cougars took the first two sets, the Jaguars rallied to win the next two force a fifth, winner take all set.
Falling behind 2-0 to begin the fifth set, the Cougars responded with six straight points to jump ahead, never surrendering the lead the rest of the set. UH took the final set 15-12 to open up the Maroon & White Invite with a win.
Graduate middle blocker Isabel Theut finished with a career-high 18 kills. Senior outside hitter Abbie Jackson tied her career-best six blocks in the match to go along with 19 kills and 15 digs.
Senior setter Morgan Janda and junior libero Kate Georgiades also finished with double-doubles. Janda racked up 36 assists to go along with 10 digs and Georgiades tallied 20 digs and 10 assists for her first career double-double.
Senior middle blocker Rachel Tullos recorded 12 blocks.
Friday afternoon, the Cougars roared back from a two-set deficit to secure another victory against host Mississippi State.
After dropping the first two sets to the Bulldogs, Theut took over. The graduate middle blocker’s seven kills and .462 hitting percentage powered UH to a 25-22 third set victory.
An 18-kill fourth set, 10 of which came between Jackson and Theut, evened the match at 2-2.
Tied 9-9 in the fifth set, UH went on a 6-1 run to complete the comeback and improve to 2-0 at the Maroon & White Invite.
Saturday
UH finished off the Maroon & White Invite on Saturday with a dominant sweep of the Kennesaw State.
The two teams exchanged leads three times and were tied up six times to begin the first set before the Cougars went on a 4-0 run to go up 10-7 thanks to a kill and block assist from Theut.
Kennesaw State quickly responded with three straight points to tie it up, but two more kills from Theut and two errors from the Owls allowed UH to go up 15-11 at the media timeout.
The Cougars then largely held their lead the rest of the way before Theut finished the set with her sixth kill to secure a 25-20 first set victory.
Once again neither squad could gain significant ground over the other at the beginning of the second set, but a kill by Jackson kicked off a 7-2 run that included two more kills from Theut and aces from Georgiades and Janda. UH took a 15-10 into the media timeout.
Two more service aces down the stretch from Janda helped the Cougars hold on the rest of the way and win the second set 25-19, taking a commanding 2-0 lead.
UH quickly jumped out to a 9-2 in the third set as another kill from Theut forced the Owls to call an early timeout.
Kennesaw State could not stop the bleeding out of the timeout, as the Owls committed four straight errors and allowed the Cougars to go up 13-3.
UH allowed the lead to shrink to six, but the Cougars responded with a 6-1 run off of three Kennesaw State errors and a service ace from Jackson to go 21-10.
UH cruised from then on to complete the sweep and win the third set 25-12, giving the Cougars their eighth straight victory.
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