University of Houston
Rice
Volleyball Win Streak Ends at Five
9/27/2007 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Sept. 27, 2007
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HOUSTON -- The University of Houston volleyball team fell to the Rice Owls Thursday night in five games, their fourth five-game match of the season. The Cougars lost with scores of 30-26, 24-30, 28-30, 30-17 and 10-15 at Fox Gym on the Rice campus.
The Cougars (8-7, 3-1 C-USA) hold a 56-14 lead in the all-time series with their cross town rivals and are 3-2 against the Owls dating back to Oct. 4, 2006.
Junior Justine Farmer led the way for the Cougars with 28 kills and 20 digs for her 10th double-double this season. Freshman Hannah Sullivan added 20 kills and 17 digs for her third double-double.
Houston jumped out to an early lead in the match winning game one. The Cougars held a nine-point lead late in the match, 26-17, before a Rice rally cut the lead to three. UH was eventually able to hold off the Owls behind freshman Hannah Sullivan's five kills on 11 attempts and no errors and a .455 hitting percentage.
Rice out-hit the Cougars in game two, .350 to .267, respectively to come away with the easy game two win, 30-24. Houston never held the lead in the game trailing by seven, 21-27, late in the game. Junior Justine Farmer added nine kills in the losing effort, tying the match at one game apiece.
Coming out of the break, Houston looked to take back the lead mounting a small 16-11 lead. But a Rice timeout gave all the momentum to the Owls. They came out of the break scoring 10 of the next 15 points the tie the game 21-21. It would be all Rice the rest of the way as they took a 2-1 lead in the match.
Houston looked to take the match to five games jumping out to an early 12-5 lead before a Rice timeout. This time the momentum stayed with the Cougars who held a comfortable lead throughout the game. Houston evened the match 2-2 ending the game on a serving ace by freshman Malia Vavao. Farmer notched seven kills in the game on no errors to lead the Cougars. Houston also out-hit the Owls .283 to .019 in the game.
It looked as though Rice was going to get the win in game five, scoring the games first four points and being the first to reach eight but Houston battled back to within two, 7-9, forcing Rice to call their first timeout. But Rice wasn't going to let Houston get the season sweep winning 10-15.
Leading the way for Rice was Natalie Bogan and Tracy Lam who recorded 14 kills and 26 digs, respectively.
The Cougars will continue conference play Oct. 5 at SMU and on Oct. 7 at Tulsa before returning home for a weekend series at the Athletics/Alumni Center on Oct. 12 and 14 against Tulane and UTEP. Live stats and live video streaming will be available for all home matches and a complete wrap-up can be found on www.UHCougars.com.
