University of Houston
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UTEP
Volleyball Slips Past UTEP for Third Straight Win
10/14/2007 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Oct. 14, 2007
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HOUSTON -- The University of Houston volleyball team defeated the UTEP Miners Sunday for their third straight win and their seventh straight on their home court. The Cougars won with scores of 32-30, 30-27, 24-30, 22-30 and 16-14 at the Athletics/Alumni Center.
Houston is now 4-1 this season in five-game matches.
Leading the way for Houston (11-8, 6-2 C-USA) was junior Justine Farmer. Farmer notched 31 kills and 15 digs for her 12th double-double this season. Freshman Hannah Sullivan added 17 kills and 13 digs for her fourth double-double this year.
Farmer's 31 kills were her third highest total this season trailing only her 34 against UTSA and her 36 against Southern Miss.
"We blocked well in the games we won. In the games we lost, we served badly and we hit badly. Sometimes when you play this way in the whole match you don't notice the good things," Walton said.
Kinsey Cave did good again today. I could have made a couple adjustments to get Kinsey out there more but the problem was she was hitting good but not blocking good. Ashley (Calhoun) was blocking good but not hitting good. We needed to find someone that was hitting and blocking good in that position and we would have been alright."
The Cougars played from behind for most of game one, not taking the lead until it was 19-18 in Houston's favor. Houston would hold a close lead until the Miners battled back to tie it at 28-28. The Miners jumped ahead 29-30 but two UTEP errors and a Farmer kill gave Houston the win. Farmer had seven of the Cougars 18 kills in game one. Despite the win, Houston was out hit .123 to .158.
Game two played out in similar fashion to game one. The Cougars had to battle from behind most of the game and didn't take their first solid lead until the score reached 26-25. Junior Barbara Freitas and sophomore Kelsey King combined for a block to put Houston on top. Prior to that Houston held the lead, 9-7, but UTEP took it back on three straight points.
UH scored four quick points to open game three. It looked to be another close game as neither team was able to mount a significant lead. UTEP would go on to earn the win forcing a game four. The Cougars were out hit for the second time this match, .268 to .120 but trailed the Miners 16 kills by just one.
Game four was all in the Miner's favor. UTEP never trailed and the Cougars were only able to tie the game twice. Houston continued to be out hit in the match, .395 to .243 and the Miners held on to force a fifth game.
The Miners reached the halfway point first, 8-7, in game five but Houston responded to tie the game on the next point. But UTEP wasn't going away, tying the game 14-14 before Houston took the win, 16-14.
Despite the win, head coach Bill Walton said the Cougars lacked focus in the match.
"I told the staff the last time we were at home and we got a good win on Friday night the girls just celebrate Friday night and with football on Saturday and they come in here on Sunday just jacking around. Out of the 12 healthy players on the team, one came prepared to play and that was Justine," Walton said.
She came prepared to play because she is from El Paso and this is the hometown team and she wants to make sure she has a good showing. But nobody else came prepared to play with the same attitude, the same intensity and the same enthusiasm that they came with on Friday night."
UTEP was led by Amy Sanders and Elsa Reyes who had 20 kills and 25 digs, respectively.
Prior to today's match, about 50 girls took part in a free clinic put on by the Houston volleyball team. The girls received tickets to today's match for their participation in the clinic.
The Cougars will be on the road next weekend for two matches against UAB on Oct. 19 (7pm) and Memphis on Oct. 21 (1 pm). For a complete wrap-up of each match log on to ww
