The UH volleyball team extended its winning streak to seven matches on Saturday after two comfortable wins over Oklahoma. | Oscar Herrera/The Cougar
The No. 22 UH volleyball team swept Oklahoma in two straight matchups on Thursday and Saturday at the McCasland Field House to extend its record on the season to 16-7 and 9-5 in the Big 12.
Game one
With a three-set sweep, UH added a sixth consecutive win to its ongoing streak in its matchup against Oklahoma.
Graduate student Abbie Jackson was the dominating factor with the game-record 15 kills. Jackson didn’t stop there, also adding one ace, one block, six digs and a .500 hitting percentage. In this game, Jackson played in her 500th career set, earning her the #2 on Houston’s all-time list.
The Cougars earned a .370 hitting average as a team, compared to the Sooners’ .096. It is the sixth time this season UH held its opponent sub-.100 efficiency.
Junior Kellen Morin played her part with five blocks, with graduate student Nena Mbonu and junior Katie Corelli adding each of their four blocks to the Cougars’ game total of 9 blocks. It should also be added that Mbonu’s four blocks brought her to a total of 100 blocks in her career.
Senior Kate Georgiades shined as she collected the game-best in digs with 13 and three aces. With 13 digs in the match, Georgiades has tallied 94 matches with double-digit digs.
In set one, Oklahoma was the first to take the lead 3-1, but Houston was quick to fight back with kills from Mbonu and Jackson bumping the Cougars to 6-3.
The game stayed close until it turned in Houston’s favor with two kills, two aces and a Sooner error, after which the scoreboard read 20-13. Two Oklahoma errors and two Houston kills finished the first set with a final score of 25-16.
By the end of the first set, Jackson recorded five kills and graduate student Morgan Janda tallied five assists, while Georgiades hit five of her 13 digs.
Houston made sure to be the first on the board in the second set, 4-0. OU was never able to close the deficit, always stuck two points behind. With a run of six, Houston widened the gap extensively 23-12. A kill from Jackson and a service ace ended the second set, 25-13.
During the second set, Jackson and Corelli both tallied five kills while Janda recorded five more assists.
Set three went back and forth until the Cougars’ 8-1 run officially put them in the lead at12-5. Oklahoma rallied, but it was not enough as Houston quickly followed up with another run of 4-0, bumping the scoreboard to 16-7.
The Sooners were never able to close the deficit and two kills and an error ended the third and final set, 25-14.
In the last set, Senior Annie Cooke and Janda both earned five assists and Jackson tallied her final five kills.
Game two
The Cougars swept the Sooners off of their feet 3-0 once again on Saturday.
In the first set Houston took the lead, ending up taking the lead and winning the set 25-19.
For the second set Houston jumped out to a quick lead at 22-15, however the Sooners slowly closed the lead to make the game closer at 22-18.
The Sooners were down but not out for the count, keeping the set alive and closing Houston’s lead to 24-22. Houston ended up taking the set 25-22.
In the third set Houston led 3-1.
The Sooners made up the deficit to make the score 9-8, but Houston extended the lead to 13-8.
Houston kept the intensity up and extended its lead to 16-10, eventually winning the set 25-13 and winning the match 3-0.
Graduate student Kenna Sauer lead the cougars with 15 kills and 40 total attempts, while graduate student Abbie Jackson followed with eight kills and 20 total attempts. Graduate student Nena Mbonu had seven kills and 15 total attempts.
