The University of Houston volleyball team improved to 9-0 at the Athletics/Alumni Center with a 3-1 (23-25, 25-23, 25-17, 25-20) win over UAB Friday night. With the win, Houston improves to 15-5 on the season and 8-2 in Conference USA play.
Four Cougars recorded double-digit
kills in the win over the Blazers. Junior Katie Norris led the Cougars with 17
kills. Junior Chandace Tryon added 14 kills and three blocks, while senior Lucy
Charuk had 13 kills and four blocks. Junior Stephanie Nwachukwu finished the
match with 11 kills.
Freshman Caitlin Ogletree had 49
assists and freshman Natalie Keck had a game-high 24 digs.
“This win
was huge,” head coach Molly Alvey said. “We need to keep building up our
momentum. We weren’t very sharp tonight, but we played a very good team and
stuck together and kept going. It just adds to the energy and the confidence
that we’ve been working on.
“We are at a totally
different place than where we were at the beginning of the year. Tonight, we
started off the match slow, but we wanted to win and we stuck
together."
Houston struggled during the
opening points of the match, committing five attack errors on 13 attempts to dig
a 9-5 hole against the Blazers. Trailing, Alvey called a timeout to regroup her
team. The Cougars battled back to within one, 11-10, out of the break, but UAB
pulled away once again to regain a 20-15 led.
Alvey called her second timeout
and UH came off the bench to go on a 5-1 run and get within one, 21-20. After
giving up much of their lead, the Blazers called a timeout. Both teams traded
points the rest of the way before UAB came away with a 25-23 win.
The Cougars had 11 kills in the
first set, led by four from Charuk.
After dropping the first set,
Houston bounced back to take a 14-10 lead in the second set. The Blazers battled
back to tie the score 15-15 but Houston pulled away to regain a 21-17 lead.
Trailing by four, UAB called its second timeout of the set. Off the bench, the
Blazers scored four straight points to tie the set,21-21. UAB scored the first
points out of a Houston timeout, but the Cougars battled back to close out the
set on a 4-0 run and even the match with a 25-23 win.
Charuk and Norris combined for 10
of the Cougars’ 16 kills in the second set.
Trailing 15-14 to the Blazers in
the third set, Houston went on an impressive 11-2 run to close out the set and
earn a 25-17 win.
Norris connected for seven kills on
15 attempts to lead Houston in the third set.
Holding a 2-1 match lead, Houston
went into the fourth set looking to secure the win. The Cougars opened to a 9-5
lead before a 4-1 run increased the UH advantage to13-6. The Blazers put
together a 4-0 run midway through the set to pull within four, 17-14, but
Houston held off a battling UAB to win the final set, 25-20.
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