University of Houston
<b> East Carolina </b>
Volleyball Rolls By East Carolina; Walton Gets 600th Career Win
10/22/2005 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Oct. 22, 2005
 | "In the past we been known to regroup and come back strong on the second day of back-to-back matches. We wanted ECU to pay for what happened last night against Marshall." Libero Jaci Gonzalez |
East Carolina - Houston Box Score (PDF)
Download Free Acrobat Reader
HOUSTON - Kariny Ritter powered home 22 kills on aseason-best .452 hitting percentage as the University of Houston volleyball team charged past East Carolina (30-21, 30-22, 30-25) on Saturday night at the Athletics/Alumni Center.
"In the past we been known to regroup and come back strong on the second day of back-to-back matches," libero Jaci Gonzalez said. "We wanted ECU to pay for what happened last night against Marshall."
The win for UH (11-9, 5-2 C-USA) was the 600th career victory for head coach Bill Walton, who becomes only the 12th coach in NCAA history to reach that feat.
The Houston offense was clicking on all cylinders knocking a .381 team attack percentage for the match, its second best output of the season. Jennifer Hohl distributed a match-best 44 assists, while Gonzalez anchored the back row with a match-high 15 digs.
"My performance was horrible yesterday," Hohl said. "It was key for us to bounce back and not let yesterday linger."
Justine Farmer smacked 12 kills to along with nine digs on a .393 attack percentage. The El Paso native was only one dig shy of her team-best 11th double-double. Becca Sartori added seven kills and four blocks.
Two freshman got into the act as Akilah Grant-Sullivan cranked out a career-best four kills on four swings, and Megan Martin registered her first career-digs as a Cougar.
"Akilah played great," Walton said. "She was a little nervous out there, but Jen giving her that ball with a little lead allowing her to get a good smack on it took that away. She got a couple of blocks at the end and that's what we need."
The two teams opened the match trading blows in the early part of game one. A kill from Pam Ferris got ECU (13-9, 4-5 C-USA) within 8-6, but Houston would go onto to score 11 of the next 15 points, opening up a 19-10 advantage. During the run, four different Cougars registered kills. That would be all the momentum needed for UH to take the opening game, 30-21.
"It was key for us to come out hard and strong," Farmer said. "We needed to get rid of that frustration because we didn't do as well as we could have yesterday."
Houston would once again use a spurt in the middle of game two building an 18-12 lead capped by a Farmer kill. The Pirates would cut the deficit to four points on three seperate occasions, but UH had an answer each time taking a two-game advantage into intermission, 30-22.
Game three was an offensive showcase as both squads registered match-highs. It also featured seven ties and four lead changes. East Carolina grabbed a 22-21 lead on a kill by Erica Wilson. After a Houston timeout, the Cougars scored five straight points aided by three Ritter kills never looking back closing out the match, 30-25.
Ferris paced all Pirate hitters with 11 kills, while Mignon Dubenion added 10 kills.
Houston continues a five-match homestand next weekend against Tulane and UTEP at the Athletics/Alumni Center.
"We have to come out and stay focused," Gonzalez said. "We know what they can do and we know what we can do. We have to play within ourselves and get the job done."
First serve against the Green Wave gets underway at 7pm. The Cougars defeated Tulane earlier this season in College Station, 3-1.
Cougar Bytes:
Tonight's match was attented by a season-high 617 fans ... Head coach Bill Walton picked up his 600th career win becoming the 12th coach in NCAA history to reach that feat ... Houston improves to 6-0 all-time against East Carolina and 6-1 in the month of October ... Four of the last six victories over the Pirates have come in sweeps ... UH connected on a .381 attack percentage for the match, its second best output of the season only behind a .400 effort against Southern Miss (Oct. 14) ... The Cougars are now 5-4 this season in three-game matches this season ... Akilah Grant-Sullivan popped a career-best four kills on four swings ... After making her Cougar debut last night, Megan Martin picked up her first career digs tonight ... Kariny Ritter has reached double-digit kills in 13 consecutive matches ... Her .452 attack percentage was a season-high ... She has ripped at least 15 kills in 10 of her 13 outings ... This is the seventh time on the season that Ritter has knocked 20 or more kills ... Houston is now 8-3 this season when Ritter leads in kills ... Ritter is 14 kills shy of reaching 359, her total from all of last season ... With four block assists, Becca Sartori is the first Cougar to surpass 70 total blocks on the season ... Sartori is now 35 block assists away from reaching the Top 10 in the Cougar record books ... With 44 assists, Jennifer Hohl is 104 assists shy of reaching her total of 889 from a season ago ... Hohl is also 154 assists away from moving up to the No. 9 position in the UH record books ... Jaci Gonzalez passed Julie Gates (1986-89) on the career games played list moving into the No. 5 position ... The San Antonio native has now played in 435 career games; she is 19 games away from the No. 4 spot held by Michelle Frazier (1997-2000).
