University of Houston Athletics
Cougar Volleyball Ready for Round Two
10/27/2005 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
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Oct. 27, 2005
HOUSTON - The University of Houston volleyball team heads into the heart of a five-match homestand this weekend at the Athletics/Alumni Center. The Cougars face off against two opponents it has already played this season. Houston upended Tulane, 3-1, in College Station but fell to UTEP, 3-0, at the beginning of the C-USA schedule.
The Cougars (11-9, 6-2 C-USA) sit alone in third place in the league standings and are a half-game back of Tulsa (20-3, 7-2 C-USA) with three weeks remaining in the regular season.
"It's important that we have a winning mindset going into these next couple of weekends," setter Jennifer Hohl said. "Every match for us is important in conference play if we want to get a top four seed."
A top four seed would mean a first round bye at the conference tournament but Houston also realizes that three games seperates the No. 2 seed from the No. 9 spot.
Sunday's match against the Miners is Senior Day where Jaci Gonzalez, Jennifer Hohl, Kariny Ritter and Cinthia Piva will be honored. First serve is set for 1pm.
Ritter has been the staple of the Houston attack this season. She paces the Cougars knocking home 345 kills this season. Ritter has picked up her play in C-USA matches and is second in the league smashing 5.29 spikes per game.
October has been a kind month to the Brazilian. She was dubbed Conference USA Player of the Week two consecutive weeks Oct. 10 and 17. Ritter the first Cougar to capture the weekly conference award on back-to-back weeks since Jennifer Wittenburg in 2001.
Houston 8-3 this season when Ritter leads the squad in kills. Ritter has powered home double-digit kills in 13 consecutive matches, including at least 15 kills in 10 of those 13 outings.
Her three Player of the Week awards this season match Jenny Tenneberger (2002) and Jennifer Wittenburg (2001) efferts.
Hohl has been a key cog in the Houston offense this season. The senior setter has put together double-doubles in five of her last 10 matches. She has eclipsed the 50-assist mark six times this season.
Like Ritter, Hohl has really taken her game to another level since conference play began. The Houston offense is second in C-USA matches connecting on a .243 attack percentage.
The Indiana native ignited a balanced offense last time out against East Carolina. Her efficiency allowed four hitters to attack over a .375 clip as the Houston hitters registerd a season-low 10 attack errors for the entire match.
UH ranks second in C-USA matches pumping out 16.11 kills per game, while dishing out 14.57 assists per game. Hohl accounts for 11.39 of the helpers.
Gonzalez enters the weekend holder of the C-USA career digs mark. She currently sits seventh all-time, third among active players, on the NCAA list with 2,225 career digs.
The San Antonio native is 20 digs behind current Pitt libero Megan McClain and 21 digs shy of Becky Dreher (Oral Roberts, 2001-04) on the all-time list.
Gonzalez is not only the top libero in C-USA but one of the top liberos in the nation sporting 465 digs at a 6.20 per game clip. The 6.20 digs per game is second in the NCAA.
"We have to come out and stay focused," Gonzalez said. "We know what they can do, and we know what we can do do. We have to play within ourselves and play as a team to get the job done."
The weekend kicks off Friday night against the Green Wave. The action gets underway at 7pm. UH students get in free to all volleyball matches showing their Cougar 1 Card.
