University of Houston
SMU
Middles Fuel Volleyball Past SMU
11/6/2005 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Nov. 6, 2005
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DALLAS - Becca Sartori and Zuela Adom combined for 30 kills fueling the University of Houston volleyball team past SMU (30-18, 30-27, 30-19) at Moody Coliseum on Sunday afternoon.
"Becca said she was having fun today and I can see why she said that because she was kicking butt," head coach Bill Walton said. "Not only did Becca hit well, but our team had 60 kills and the other team had 38. You can have fun playing when you play that way."
With the victory, Houston (15-10, 10-3 C-USA) snatched one of the four first round byes at the upcoming Conference USA tournament at Rice on Nov. 17-20. The Cougars can only be as high as the No. 2 seed since Marshall claimed the C-USA regular season title with a 3-0 victory at UCF earlier this afternoon.
Sartori ripped 18 kills on 28 swings committing only one error for a season-best .609 attack percentage, while Adom fired home a career-best 12 kills connecting at a .421 rate.
Jennifer Hohl dished out a match-high 47 assists, surpassing the 1,000 assist-mark on the season. Hohl also tallied 12 digs for her sixth double-double in C-USA action.
Justine Farmer chipped in 14 kills and nine digs. Kariny Ritter got into the act adding 11 kills, stretching her double-digit kills streak to 18 consecutive matches. Jaci Gonzalez anchored the back row, plucking a match-high 17 digs for the victors.
Up 14-10 in the opening game, the Cougars turned on the jets scoring 16 of the final 24 points for a 30-18 game one win. UH fired a .447 game percentage getting seven kills on 13 swings from Sartori. Farmer and Ritter added six and five kills, respectively. The three-headed offensive machine committed only three errors on 31 swings.
Houston opened up a 20-13 lead in game two, but SMU (11-14, 7-6 C-USA) eventually trimmed the deficit down to 28-26 on a block by Madison Hill and Natalie Peters. The Cougars finished the game on back-to-back sideouts, 30-27 via consecutive kills by Kelly McAnelly.
 Zuela Adom nailed a career-best 12 kills against the Mustangs  | |
The Cougars saved the best for last connecting on a match-best .452 attack percentage in game three. Ahead 20-16, Houston used a five-point service run by McAnelly pushing the advantage to nine. Four different Cougars garnered kills down the stretch as Houston rolled to a 30-19 victory. Sartori paced the Houston attack with nine kills on 11 swings, while Adom added five kills on seven swings. The duo didn't committ a single attack error in the final game.
Houston steps out of C-USA for a non-conference tilt at Texas State on Tuesday night.
"This is going to be a little tougher for us because normally we have Monday off, and now we're going to have to get ready to play Texas State," Walton said. "We want to maintain our side out efficiency like we did today. If we do that, then the game plan gets really easy."
First serve in San Marcos is set for 7pm.
Cougar Bytes:
Houston improves to 6-0 all-time against SMU and sweeps the regular season series against the Mustangs ... Four of the six victories in the series have come via sweeps for the Cougars ... UH is 7-5 this season in three game matches and are 11-0 when winning game two this season ... Zuela Adom smashed a career-high 12 kills on a .421 attack percentage ... The Cougars are 9-3 when Adom connects at or over a .200 clip ... Becca Sartori is 18 block assists away from reaching the Top 10 in the Cougar record books ... The Houston native has notched double-digit kills in 19 of 25 matches ... Her .609 attack percentage was also a season-best; her previous mark was an output of .571 at Southern Miss (Oct. 14) ... Jennifer Hohl went over 1,000 assists for the season ... Six of Hohl's nine double-doubles have come in C-USA action ... Hohl is now 78 assists shy of reaching 2,000 career assists ... With 11 kills, Kariny Ritter extends her double-digit kills streak to 18 consecutive matches ... Ritter is now 57 kills away from the 500-mark ... Jaci Gonzalez has played in 453 career games; she is one game away from the No. 4 spot held by Michelle Frazier (1997-2000).
