University of Houston
<b> SMU
Volleyball Comeback Effort Comes Up Short
10/29/2006 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
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Oct. 29, 2006
HOUSTON - The University of Houston volleyball team overcame a 2-0 deficit, only to fall in five games to SMU (26-30, 27-30, 33-31, 30-22, 13-15) Sunday afternoon in a Conference USA match at the Athletics/Alumni Center.
"We have to come with the right level of intensity every time we take the court," head coach Bill Walton said. "Our team has the tendency of playing up to the good teams and playing down to the bad teams."
"This match was our Louisiana-Lafayette," Walton continued. "We felt awfully good about ourselves leaving here Friday after beating Tulsa. Our team, like the football team with Louisiana-Lafayette, thought today that SMU was supposed to let them win."
Justine Farmer headlined the Cougars (16-12, 7-6 C-USA), powering home a match-high 29 kills to go along with 18 digs, but Farmer also committed 14 attack errors. The El Paso native surpassed the 20-kill mark for the 10th time this season en route to her C-USA leading 19th double-double of the season.
"We played with so much intensity on Friday against Tulsa, it seemed like we were begging for that sort of effort today," Farmer said. "We wanted to play the same, but we couldn't find it. We didn't play the way we should have."
Kelly McAnelly added 15 kills moving past Andrea Bush (Southern Miss, 2000-2003) for the No. 25 position on the C-USA career list. The Houston native now has 1,371 career kills and is eight away from Katie Engel (DePaul, 1999-2002) for the No. 24 slot.
Becca Sartori slapped 13 kills and added nine blocks, while Millicent Martin picked up her first double-double of the season with 10 kills and 14 digs.
Houston also got a double-double from Krystal Schulle, who dished out 61 assists in addition to stretching out 14 digs. Ashley Calhoun reeled in 19 digs.
SMU (14-13, 5-8 C-USA) was paced by Caitlin Rainbird, who fired in 22 kills. Rachel Giubilato and Natalie Peters tacked on 16 and 15 kills, respectively. Stephanie Kons passed out 62 assists, while Candice Davis corralled a match-best 29 digs for the Mustangs.
After dropping the first two games, Houston charged back to take game three, 33-31. The Cougars lost a 25-20 lead only to fight off a match point with a triple block. Houston closed out the comeback with back-to-back Farmer kills.
The Cougars kept the momentum taking control of the fourth game early and rolled to a 30-22 win. The Houston defense held SMU to nine kills and forced seven attack errors.
The two teams traded points to start game five. SMU used consecutive blocks to build a 10-7 advantage. The Cougars fought back to within one point on two separate occasions, but the Mustangs got a pair of critical sideouts for the 15-13 victory.
Houston concludes the 2006 regular season home schedule Thursday night, celebrating Senior Night against Rice. First serve against the Owls is on tap for 7pm.
"We're ready to put this match behind us and have a chance to get some revenge against Rice," Farmer said. "It's our house. We have to have the mindset of wanting to protect it."
Cougar Notes
This afternoon was the first time in eight meetings that SMU has defeated Houston on the volleyball court ... After starting the season 5-0 on Sunday, the Cougars have dropped their last two Sunday matches ... Houston falls to 2-7 this season in five-game matches ... Millicent Martin added her first double-double in her UH playing career with 10 kills and 14 digs ... It was the seventh time this season that Martin has reached double-digit digs ... Ashley Calhoun has reeled in double-digit digs in 17 of her 24 starts at libero ... Justine Farmer has reached double-digit kills in 31 of her last 33 matches dating back to last season ... The El Paso native reached the 20-kill plateau for the 10th time en route to picking up her C-USA leading 19th double-double of the season ... Farmer is two kills away from reaching 900-career mark ... She also is 41 digs shy of reaching 800 ... Farmer now has sprawled out for 395 digs this season, 10th highest in UH history for a season ... Krystal Schulle racked up her 10th double-double of the season, including three of her last four outings ... The Lockhart native passed out 61 assists to go along with 14 digs ... It was the fourth time that Schulle has reached the 60-assist mark ... Kelly McAnelly tallied her 11th double-double of the season, powering home 15 kills in addition to 13 digs ... With 15 kills, Kelly McAnelly continues her climb towards the top of the Cougar career kills list ... The Houston native has racked up 1,371 career kills and is 35 away from matching Jennifer Wittenburg (1999-2001) for the No. 3 hole ... McAnelly moved past Andrea Bush (Southern Miss, 2000-2003) and is eight kills from reaching Katie Engel (DePaul, 1999-2002) for the No. 24 position on the Conference USA career list ... With 53 attempts, McAnelly is 384 swings away from Debbie Vokes (1994-98) for the top spot in that category in the Houston record book ... Becca Sartori added 13 kills and now has 1,276 career kills ... Sartori is 60 kills away from Emily Leffers (1993-94, 1996-97) for the No. 5 position in the Houston record book ... Sartori also pulls within 20 kills from reaching the Top 30 in the C-USA record book ... With nine block assists, Sartori surpassed Marie-Claude Tourillon (1994-1996) for the No. 5 slot in program history ... She now has 325 blocks assists and is 30 shy of Loure Dews (2001-2004) for the No. 4 position ... The Houston native also has 370 career blocks and is four away from reaching Janet Goreham (DePaul, 2001-2004) for the No. 23 position in the C-USA record book ... Sartori is 15 total blocks from Tourillon for the No. 8 hole in the UH record book.
