University of Houston
Texas State
Volleyball Dismisses Texas State
11/8/2005 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Nov. 8, 2005
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SAN MARCOS - Four Cougars totaled double-doubles as the University of Houston volleyball team picked up a 3-1 victory at Texas State (25-30, 30-20, 32-30, 30-26) on Tuesday night at Strahan Coliseum.
It was only the second time this season that the Cougars have won the match after dropping the first game. Houston won a match earlier this season against Tulane in College Station by an identical 3-1 count back on Oct. 2.
Houston (16-10, 10-3 C-USA) also won without kills-leader Kariny Ritter and regular starter Millicent Martin. Head coach Bill Walton said after the SMU match that he was going to rest the duo in this match in preparation for the upcoming conference tournament.
Justine Farmer and Becca Sartori paved the way, smacking 16 kills each. Farmer added 11 digs for her team-leading 14th double-double of the season, while Sartori paced the front row, registering four blocks.
Kelly McAnelly, playing in her third match back from injury, nailed 14 kills on a team-best .355 attack percentage to go along with 14 digs.
Cinthia Piva tallied season-bests with 11 kills and 12 digs for her 21st career double-double, first of the 2005 campaign. Jennifer Hohl continued her strong play, passing out 52 assists to go along with 15 digs. In the back row, Jaci Gonzalez sprawled out for a match-high 26 digs.
The Cougars dropped game one, 30-25. Houston was able to regroup in the second game with a patented middle-game run. After trailing 10-9, the Cougars ran off the next six points on Sartori's serve to open up a 15-10 advantage.
The two teams traded blows, and at 22-17 Houston pulled away scoring eight of the game's final 11 points for a 30-20 victory.
Houston used that momentum coming out of the locker room building a 13-7 lead in game three. The Bobcats charged back and evened the game at 29. After an exchange of sideouts, Houston got back-to-back kills from Sartori and Piva snatching the 2-1 advantage, earning a 32-30 third game win.
Texas State (14-12, 12-4 Southland) looked to force a deciding game five after gaining a 25-24 lead in game four. The Cougars had other ideas, finishing the match on a 6-1 spurt. During the run, Houston received two kills from Farmer and was aided by three Bobcat setting mistakes.
Houston finishes the regular season at Rice (16-9, 7-7 C-USA). It will be the second time in eight days that the two rivals will square off. The Cougars won the first meeting, 3-2 last Wednesday at the Athletics/Alumni Center.
"The good thing is that we just played Rice last week so we don't have to do a lot of preparation on them," Walton said. "And the team will have the gameplan fresh in their minds."
First serve against the Owls is slated for 7pm at Autry Court.
Cougar Bytes:
Houston improves to 22-3 all-time against Texas State ... The Cougars are now 6-3 this season in four game matches ... Tuesday was only the second time in nine tries that the Cougars have lost game one and recovered to win the match ... On the flip side, Houston is 12-0 when winning game two this season ... Four Cougars reached double-digit kills for the fourth time this season; Houston is a perfect 4-0 in those matches ... Kariny Ritter had her double-digit kills streak snapped at 18 consecutive matches ... Justine Farmer picked up her team-leading 14th double-double on the season ... With four block assists, Becca Sartori is 14 block assists away from reaching the Top 10 in the Cougar record books ... The Houston native has notched double-digit kills in 20 of 26 matches ... Sartori is also 50 kills away from reaching 1,000 for her career ... Jennifer Hohl is also closing in a milestone and is 26 assists shy of reaching 2,000 for her career ... Hohl also picked up her ninth double-double on the season ... Kelly McAnelly picked up a season-best 14 digs to go along with 14 kills on a season-high .355 attack percentage for her second double-double on the season ... McAnelly is 58 kills away from reaching Ashley Mulkey (1990-1993) for the No. 10 spot in the Cougar record books ... Cinthia Piva added her 21st career double-double, first this season, knocking season-bests with 11 kills and 12 digs ... Jaci Gonzalez moved into the No. 4 spot in career games played passing Michelle Frazier (1997-2000) ... Gonzalez has now played in 457 career games; she is one game away from the No. 3 spot held by Kristin Guidish (1995-1999).
