Oct. 20, 2001

Final Stats

HOUSTON, Texas - After fighting through two close games, the University of Houston volleyball team exploded in the third game on the way to a 3-0 win Saturday over Charlotte at Hofheinz Pavilion.

With the win, the Cougars ran their season-best winning streak to five matches and improved to 10-8 overall and 7-2 in Conference USA action. The friendly confines of Hofheinz Pavilion have proven to be not so friendly to visitors with UH winning all five league contests at home this season.

In addition, the Cougars ran their winning streak over the 49ers to seven matches.

Senior outside hitter Jennifer Wittenburg led the way for the Cougars with 15 kills and 10 digs for the 23rd double-double of her UH career. In addition, the Houston native moved into seventh place all time in school career history with 1,160 kills.

Jenny Tanneberger added 11 kills with only two errors in 25 chances. On the defensive front, senior Gabi Carbone finished with 11 digs to record double figures in that category for the second straight match and sophomore Amanda Baggett recorded 13 digs to lead all players.

Courtney Burg and Kathleen Ramos led Charlotte (9-12, 2-9 C-USA) with 12 kills apiece with Burg adding a team-best 13 digs as well.

The Cougars appeared to have game one well under control, jumping out to an 18-10 lead during one stretch. However, the 49ers rallied and pulled to within 28-27 on a Burg kill, but UH scored the next three points to take a 30-27 win in game one.

In game two, Charlotte jumped out to an 8-3 lead before the Cougars rattled off the next eight points, thanks to two kills and a block from Wittenburg and a block and kill from Loure Dews. The game would go back and forth from there, with neither team building more than a three-point lead.

After UH gained a 24-21 lead, Charlotte stormed back to take the next four points and a 25-24 lead. But the Cougars would score five of the game's next six points to win the game 30-26. Jane Anne Karasek led the way with back-to-back kills during the UH rally.

UH exploded out of the gates early in game three, building 13-3 and 27-9 leads, and would never look back.

The Cougars will now hit the road for their next four matches, starting with UAB and South Florida, on Friday and Sunday, respectively.