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University of Houston Athletics
Volleyball Continues Road Swing at Baylor
8/31/2006 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
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Aug. 31, 2006
HOUSTON - The University of Houston volleyball team continues its three weekend road trip in Waco at the Clarion Invitational this weekend. The Cougars face off against old Southwest Conference rival Baylor along with UALR, New Mexico and Louisiana-Monroe. All matches from Waco will have live stats on UHCougars.com
"We're excited to get back to work and see how the team responds to what we worked on in practice this week," head coach Bill Walton said.
Walton enters the weekend one win shy of reaching 400 career victories at Houston. He has racked up 399 of the program's 793 victories since 1972. He picked up his 300th win with the Cougars during the 1999 season against Arkansas-Little Rock.
When Walton reaches the milestone, he will join former basketball coach Guy V. Lewis and current baseball manager Rayner Noble as the only other Cougar coaches to win 400 games at UH.
Houston enters the weekend with a 34-8 mark against this weekend's opponents with 34 of the 42 meetings coming against former Southwest Conference rival Baylor. UH is 31-3 all-time against the Bears, but Baylor won both meetings 3-1 during the 2003 season.
The Cougars also enter with winning records against Louisiana-Monroe (1-0) and Arkansas-Little Rock (2-1), while New Mexico is 4-0 all-time against Houston with the last meeting coming in 1988.
UH is coming off a 2-1 mark at the Towson Invitational, knocking off Towson and Robert Morris but fell in five games to No. 23 Ohio State. Justine Farmer and Becca Sartori were named to the All-Tournament Team a weekend ago.
Kelly McAnelly paced the Houston offense during the 2003 and 2004 seasons, registering a combined 1,014 kills. She spent most of 2005 battling a foot injury but is back at full strength for her senior season.
With five kills against Robert Morris in limited action, McAnelly moved past Janelle Harmonson (1990-93) for the No. 9 spot in career kills. The Houston native enters this weekend's action with 1,144 career kills and is 14 away from equaling Nashika Stokes (1993-96) in the No. 8 spot. She is also 136 kills from moving into the Top 30 of Conference USA history.
As far as attack attempts go, McAnelly is currently fourth all-time with 3,437 attempts. McAnelly is 14 swings shy from moving into third place past Emily Leffers (1993-94, 1996-97) and 22 attempts away from Jennifer Wittenburg (1999-2001) in the No. 2 position in the Houston record book.
McAnelly compiled a pair of double-doubles last weekend, including an 18-kill and 13-dig performance in the season opener against Towson (Aug. 26).
Kelsey King was named Conference USA Co-Setter of the Week Monday afternoon as announced by the league's office. It was the third career weekly award for King, who was a two-time Big South Freshman of the Week winner at Birmingham Southern last season.
King was named to the Big South Conference All-Freshman squad after starting 27 matches for the Panthers. She was third in the Big South, averaging 11.83 assists per game. She also added 272 digs and 59 total blocks en route to 13 double-doubles and one triple-double with BSC.
In her first weekend as a Cougar, King fueled the Houston offense with a pair of 50-assist outings against Towson (Aug. 26) and No. 23 Ohio State (Aug. 26). It was the first time in her career that King put together back-to-back 50-asssist performances.
After being named to the 2005 Conference USA All-Freshman Team, Farmer is ready to prove that there is no such thing as a sophomore slump.
Farmer cranked 49 kills and added 40 digs en route to a Towson Invitational All-Tournament Team selection last weekend. She eclipsed the 20-dig mark for only the second time in her career against Towson (Aug. 26) and smacked 19 kills against No. 23 Ohio State (Aug. 26).
The El Paso native enters the weekend 36 kills and 86 digs shy of reaching the career 500-mark in both categories. She has reached the double-digit kills mark in nine consecutive matches and 13 of her last 15 outings dating back to last season.
Sartori joins McAnelly on the prowl of chasing down career marks in the Houston and Conference USA record books.
She ripped 20 kills on a .444 attack percentage in the season opener against Towson (Aug. 26). The Houston native is 95 kills away from breaking into the Top 10 in program history and 246 kills shy from reaching the Top 30 in the C-USA record book.
With three block assists against No. 23 Ohio State (Aug. 26), Sartori moved into the Top 10 in program history with 260 block assists. Sartori is nine block assists away from matching Emily Leffers (1993-94, 1996-97) for No. 9 all-time. She is also 38 total blocks away from the Top 30 in C-USA history.
Ashley Calhoun and Kinsey Cave were two players that signed during the early period last November and will be looking to make an instant impact for the Cougars.
Calhoun won her fair share of accolades as an All-Conference and All-State selection at Xavier High School (2002-03) and Neenah High School (2004-05) in Wisconsin. She started in all three games for the Cougars at libero and is tied with Justine Farmer for the team lead, tallying 40 digs. Calhoun corralled 19 digs in the season opener at Towson (Aug. 26).
Cave was an All-CIFSS selection and Century League First-Team honoree in both 2004 and 2005 at El Dorado High School in California. The southpaw came through with seven kills and three aces against No. 23 Ohio State (Aug. 26).
After missing the first three matches of the 2005 season, Millicent Martin found herself as a regular in the Cougar rotation.
Martin has already notched double-digit digs twice this season. She reeled in 11 digs against Robert Morris (Aug. 27) after pulling in 10 digs in the season opener against Towson (Aug. 26).
This is the second of three weekends that Houston will spend away from the Bayou City. The Cougars head to Nacogdoches next weekend before the home opener against Texas-San Antonio (Sept. 14). First serve is slated for 7pm against the Roadrunners at the Athletics/Alumni Center.
