University of Houston
Tennessee
Volleyball Falls to No. 17 Tennessee in Houston Invitational Finale
9/4/2010 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Sept. 4, 2010
HOUSTON - The University of Houston volleyball team lost to No. 17 Tennessee 3-0 (13-25, 17-25, 22-25) Saturday night at the Athletics/Alumni Center in the finale match of the Houston Invitational.
For her efforts in the Cougars' three matches, Lucy Charuk was named to the All-Tournament Team. She would go on to finish with six kills and seven blocks.
Chandace Tryon led the Cougars with eight kills against the Volunteers and Amber Brooks added 22 assists. Amanda Carson paced the team with 13 digs.
With the loss, Houston falls to 1-5 on the season.
The Cougars played against their second ranked opponent in the tournament and played a tough match against the Top 20 program.
"We played extremely well against a very good team," head coach Molly Alvey said. "As the match went along, we started to make decisions better and got some more open opportunities for our blockers."
"Amanda Carson had an unbelievable defensive match. She led in passing and was extremely solid from start to finish. Lucy Charuk also added to the success of our defense by reading the block and making correct decisions. This weekend we got better. Now we have to gear up for another tough weekend with a top 25 team in Wichita State. We have to continue our competitive mindset and continue to create opportunities."
Tallying just five kills in the first set, Houston struggled in the opening set of the match but the difficulties were matched on the other side of the net. In a credit to the Cougar defense, the Volunteers had just 10 kills.
After dropping the first set, Houston rebounded in the second to play a much tougher match. The Cougars trailed just two points at 9-7 in the early go before Alvey called a timeout. Out of the break, Houston would go on to tie the score at 10-10 and trade points for much of the remainder of the set. It wasn't until the Volunteers were able to gain a little breathing room at 22-16 would the deficit be too much for Houston.
With the score 2-0 in Tennessee's favor, Houston came off the bench in the third set looking for a win. The two teams matched each other point-for-point and forced three lead changes and saw 15 ties. The Cougars looked to be on their way to the win, leading 22-21 but the Volunteers slipped past the Cougars to steal the win.
UP NEXT
Houston will be back on the court Sept. 10-11 when they travel to Provo, Utah for the BYU Molten Classic. Tournament participants include Wichita State, Loyola Marymount and BYU.
