Highlighting Cougar Volleyball's Historic Year

The 2021 Houston volleyball season was one to remember by many moments, numbers and memories. In a season back to normal after the COVID-19 pandemic moved last season into the spring, the team came out of the gates looking to bounce back in a bigger way after coming up just short in the 2020-21 AAC Championship game. Through the ups and downs, the following moments highlight the best of what was the 2021 volleyball season.

A Bounce-Back Beginning to Invitational Exhilaration
The Oklahoma Invitational set the stage for the Cougars' first test of the season as they prepared to face Lipscomb. Houston dropped the first two sets by a combined five points and were on the verge of its first loss of the season. When confidence and belief could have been lost, the Cougars flipped the script and won the third and fourth sets by a combined five points to even the match at 2-2. Having cancelled out the first four sets of the match, the Cougars went on to win the fifth set 15-5 to pick up its first victory of the season. The team never faltered as the comeback victory against Lipscomb sparked a run that led to Houston winning the Oklahoma Invitational which set the tone moving further along the early season.

Coming Back Stronger
Despite losing its first conference game of the season, Houston bounced back once again with a five-match winning streak to pull towards the top of the conference standings. The Cougars managed to record three winning streaks with the longest coming at seven wins starting in October and going through November. The Cougars were one of the best teams in the conference, never losing back-to-back matches at any point throughout the season. Houston won all six matches after a loss, five coming by way of sweeps and only lost one set while recording an average .253 attacking percentage in those matches. The resilience shown in matches after a loss showed the heart the team played with as they kept pushing for a place at the top of the conference.

Unseating the Knights
Having not played UCF since 2019, the Cougars looked up at the Knights after their first conference loss of the season. However, an Oct. 8 date in Orlando gave Houston the chance to beat the defending conference champions on their home court. A 5-set barn-burner ensued with the Cougars out-lasting the Knights 15-12 in the fifth set. Junior Abbie Jackson led the match with 20 kills and four aces while junior Rachel Tullos blocked six attacks, sophomore Annie Cooke dished out 47 assists and sophomore Kate Georgiades dug 19 attacks.

A Milestone Met
Entering her junior season with 636 kills, senior outside hitter Abbie Jackson was a force to be reckoned with on the attack. Before Houston played its 24th game of the season against Temple, No. 24 for the Cougars sat three kills shy of reaching 1,000 career kills. As for Jackson, who had averaged around four kills per set throughout the year coming into the match, the milestone was bound to be reached. Soon after the first set began, Jackson recorded her 1,000th career kill, becoming only the 20th student-athlete to do so since 1984. Jackson finished the match with 15 kills as Houston swept Temple, yet the spotlight shined bright on the newest member of a milestone club for volleyball program history.

Tallying the 24th win
The Cougars picked up their 24th win of the season on the road against program rivals Memphis, becoming the first Houston team to record 24 wins since 1996 while marking the eighth time in NCAA program history that a team had done so. Jackson and junior middle blocker Rachel Tullos finished the match with 10 kills each, while sophomore setter Annie Cooke posted 38 assists and sophomore libero Kate Georgiades ended with 15 digs for the Cougars. A performance much like any other the Cougars had displayed in any of their other victories on the season was shadowed by a historic moment for the program as the team etched its name in the school's record books. Houston would go on to win its 25th match against South Florida on Nov. 24, becoming the first team since 1994 to win 25 or more matches in a season.

Fearsome Four get Awards All-around
Houston had four stand-out student-athletes in Jackson, Cooke, Tullos and Georgiades, who led the way for the Cougars throughout the season and managed to pick up some recognition nationally as well as within the conference.

Abbie Jackson
Jackson was the star of the team in 2021 as she was named to the American all-conference first team for a second-straight year. She now sits 15th all-time in UH history for kills in a season at 496 and fourth all-time for total attacks in a season at 1554 which led individual players nationally. Jackson is now 11th all-time in UH history for aces in a season with 45 while ranking eighth nationally for total kills at 496. She ranks 31st in the country in total service aces with 45, set a career-high 81 attacks at East Carolina on Oct. 24, career-high six blocks in a win over Mississippi State on Sept. 3 and hit a career-high .471 against Lipscomb. Other notable stats include her season-high and career-best 31 kills at East Carolina on Oct. 24, four different 20-plus kill matches,11 double-doubles on the season, career-high 20 digs against SMU on Oct. 15, career-best .216 on the season.

Kate Georgiades
Georgiades was named the American Libero of the Year and All-AAC First Team in her first year with the Cougars. She led the conference in digs per set at 5.38 while posting 20-plus digs in 14 different matches, with two separate three-match streaks with 20-plus digs. Georgiades ranks fourth all-time in UH history in digs per set at 5.39 and fifth for digs in a season with 663, which ranked second nationally. She ranked ninth in digs per set while posting the third-most digs in a match in UH history at 41. Georgiades also set the school record for digs in a four-set match at SMU on Nov. 21 with 36 digs. Other stats include finishing second on the team in assists with 118, third on the team in service aces with 30 and leading the team in sets played at 123.

Rachel Tullos
Tullos was named to the American all-conference first team while finishing second in the conference in blocks/set in AAC play at 1.22. She ranked top 10 in the conference in attacking percentage in AAC play at .384 and recorded five-plus blocks in 18 different matches. Tullos ended the season ranked 46th nationally in blocks/sets at 1.23 and ninth all-time in UH history since 1984 in attacking percentage for a season with at least 100 kills (.346). She led the team in blocks with 151, sets played with 123, led the team in attack percentage at .346 while starting every match this season for the Cougars.

Annie Cooke
Cooke was named to the American all-conference second team as she recorded 50-plus assists in four different matches, double-doubles in nine different matches with some double-doubles in back-to-back matches three different times including a three-match streak from UCF on Oct. 8 to SMU on Oct. 15. Cooke set a career-high eight kills against Temple on Oct. 29 while leading the team in assists with 1193. She finished second on the team in service aces at 41, matches started with 31 and attack percentage at .328.

David Rehr
The Cougars leader, head coach David Rehr hit two milestones during the 2021 season. Winning his 50th match at the helm on Cullen Blvd. and winning his 200th NCAA match as a head coach. Both milestones were met in early November with his 50th win at Houston coming at Tulsa (Nov. 7) and his 200th NCAA win coming at home against Cicinnati (Nov. 14). Rehr's 50th win came in just 78 matches as head coach, earning the title of "fastest head coach in Cougar volleyball history to 50 wins." Rehr beat legendary head coach Bill Walton to the feat by one match.

Armando Yanez

1,000 CLUB!

FOUR WONDERFUL SENIORS