University of Houston
<b> Rice
Volleyball Cooks Rice in Five Games
11/3/2005 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
 | "This was one that we really wanted. Our team looks a lot better than from past years. We have so many hitters out there. You can put the ball anywhere, and I know that someone will terminate it." Middle blocker Becca Sartori |
Nov. 2, 2005
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HOUSTON - Kariny Ritter notched a career-best 32 kills and a season-high 20 digs carrying the University of Houston volleyball team to a hard-fought 3-2 victory over Rice (31-29, 30-23, 28-30, 34-36, 15-9) on Wednesday night at the Athletics/Alumni Center.
"In my mind during the fifth game, I thought we were poised and they weren't," head coach Bill Walton said. "That was the difference in the match and a good sign that we had confidence that we were going to win the fifth game."
"The match took a little longer than it should have," libero Jaci Gonzalez said. "We had a few mental breakdowns in games three and four but we turned in around making best of the situation."
Tonight marks the first time that the Cougars (14-9, 9-2 C-USA) have beaten Rice (15-8, 6-6 C-USA) since the beginning of the 2002 season and breaks a five-match losing streak to their crosstown rivals. It was also Walton's 100th Conference USA victory.
"This was one that we really wanted," middle blocker Becca Sartori said. "Our team looks a lot better than from past years. We have so many hitters out there. You can put the ball anywhere, and I know that someone will terminate it."
Justine Farmer added her team-leading 13th double-double on the season, ripping 19 kills in addition to pulling out 18 digs, while Jennifer Hohl passed out a match-high 64 assists and 12 digs. Hohl passed former teammate Mirela Vasconcellos 1,828 assists for the No. 9 position on the all-time list. The Indiana native currently has 1,840 career assists.
Spearheading the back row for UH was Gonzalez, who matched a season-high stretching out for 35 digs. Gonzalez passed current Pitt libero Megan McClain in addition to Stephanie Keller's (Ball State, 2001-2004) 2,2273 career digs. She currently sits tied with Margie Kolat (Arkansas State, 1991-1994) for third all-time garnering 2,291 career digs. Sartori added 15 kills on a team-high .379 attack percentage and stuffed four shots for the victors.
Rice held a 16-11 advantage in game one before Houston stormed back scoring 12 of the next 19 points evening the game at 23. The two teams traded side outs staying all square to 29 apiece. Houston made the most off an Owl attack error and a ball handeling error to take the opening game, 31-29.
 Becca Sartori has reached double-digit kills in 17 of 22 matches this season.  | |
Houston used that momentum to build a 16-9 lead in the second game. The Cougars went up by as many as nine at 23-14 on a Ritter kill. Rice cut the deficit down to five at 25-20, but consecutive kills by Sartori coupled with a Farmer spike allowed Houston to take a two-game lead heading into the locker room, 30-23.
The Owls were determined not to head across town empty-handed grabbing closely contested game three, 30-28. Rice evened the match fighting off four match points edging out a scrappy 36-34 game four win.
"When we fell behind a little bit, everyone started to scramble," Sartori said. "We lost our focus for a moment because we were trying not to make a mistake instead of going after the win."
Houston regrouped in the deciding fifth game with strong defense holding the Owls to a -.056 attack percentage on seven errors. Ritter and Farmer combined for five of the six Cougar kills in game five as the Cougars emerged with a 15-9 victory.
Kristina Hoban and Jessica Holderness put together a triple-doubles for the Owls. Hoban knocked home 15 kills on a team-best .429 attack percentage to go along with 49 assists and 10 digs, while Holderness added 12 kills, 11 assists and 17 digs.
Two other Rice players tallied double-doubles in the loss, headlined by Karyn Morgan with 18 kills and 22 digs. Olaya Pazo chipped in 18 kills and 17 digs.
The Cougars return to action on Friday at Tulsa (20-5, 7-4 C-USA) before heading to SMU (11-12, 7-4 C-USA) Sunday. Houston knocked off both schools in three games earlier this season at home.
"Both of those teams are going to be fired up and ready to play us," Walton said. "Both also have all week to prepare for us."
"It's going to be a battle against Tulsa and we know that," Gonzalez said. "They are going to be ready for us like we were ready for UTEP. We just have to go out there and play our style of volleyball."
First serve against the Golden Hurricane is scheduled for 7pm.
Cougar Bytes:
Tonight's match against Rice was the 64th all-time meeting between city rivals ... The Owls are now the most all-time played opponent by Houston, Texas A&M is a close second with 63 meetings against UH ... The Cougars snapped a five-match losing streak to Rice ... Before tonight, Houston's last win in the series came in 2002 ... The Cougars have reeled off four consecutive wins and nine of its last ten ... Head coach Bill Walton picked up his 100th Conference USA victory tonight ... Houston finishes the 2005 home season with a 10-4 record, including a 6-1 mark in league action ... The Cougars are 13-3 when winning game one and 3-2 in five-game matches this season ... The 32 kills for Kariny Ritter is a new career-high ... The senior outside hitter's previous career-best was 31 against UCF (Oct. 16) ... Ritter is the first Cougar to surpass the 400-kill mark this season ... She has reached double-digit kills in 16 consecutive matches and has ripped at least 15 kills in 13 of those 16 outings ... The 20 digs for Ritter was a season-high and allowed her to register her ninth double-double ... Houston is 11-3 this season when Ritter leads in kills ... Justine Farmer put together her team-leading 13th double-double of the season ... Farmer has now put together a double-double in three consecutive matches and seven of her last 10 ... With four block assists, Becca Sartori is now 23 block assists away from reaching the Top 10 in the Cougar record books ... Akilah Grant-Sullivan matched a career-high with five total blocks for the second time this season ... With 64 assists this evening, Jennifer Hohl surpassed her total of 889 from a season ago and moved into the No. 9 hole passing former teammate Mirela Vasconcellos (2001-2004) 1,828 assists on the all-time list in the Houston record books ... Hohl is 49 assists away from 1,000 on the season and 160 assists shy from 2,000 in her career ... Five of seven Hohl's double-doubles have come in C-USA action ... Jaci Gonzalez matched a season-high sprawling out for 35 digs ... The San Antonio native has tallied 20 or more digs in 11 of her last 15 matches ... Gonzalez not only passed active Pitt libero Megan McClain with 2,256 digs, she also passed Stephanie Keller 2,273 career digs (Ball State, 2001-2004) ... Currently, Gonzalez is tied with Margie Kolat (Arkansas State, 1991-1994) with 2,291 career digs ... She sits tied for third all-time, second among active players, in career digs ... Gonzalez has now played in 447 career games; she is seven games away from the No. 4 spot held by Michelle Frazier (1997-2000).
