Volleyball Cooks Rice in Five Games
Nov. 2, 2005
Rice - Houston Box Score (PDF)
HOUSTON - Kariny Ritter notched a career-best 32 kills and a season-high 20 digs carrying the University of Houston volleyball team to a hard-fought 3-2 victory over Rice (31-29, 30-23, 28-30, 34-36, 15-9) on Wednesday night at the Athletics/Alumni Center. "In my mind during the fifth game, I thought we were poised and they weren't," head coach Bill Walton said. "That was the difference in the match and a good sign that we had confidence that we were going to win the fifth game." "The match took a little longer than it should have," libero Jaci Gonzalez said. "We had a few mental breakdowns in games three and four but we turned in around making best of the situation." Tonight marks the first time that the Cougars (14-9, 9-2 C-USA) have beaten Rice (15-8, 6-6 C-USA) since the beginning of the 2002 season and breaks a five-match losing streak to their crosstown rivals. It was also Walton's 100th Conference USA victory. "This was one that we really wanted," middle blocker Becca Sartori said. "Our team looks a lot better than from past years. We have so many hitters out there. You can put the ball anywhere, and I know that someone will terminate it." Justine Farmer added her team-leading 13th double-double on the season, ripping 19 kills in addition to pulling out 18 digs, while Jennifer Hohl passed out a match-high 64 assists and 12 digs. Hohl passed former teammate Mirela Vasconcellos 1,828 assists for the No. 9 position on the all-time list. The Indiana native currently has 1,840 career assists. Spearheading the back row for UH was Gonzalez, who matched a season-high stretching out for 35 digs. Gonzalez passed current Pitt libero Megan McClain in addition to Stephanie Keller's (Ball State, 2001-2004) 2,2273 career digs. She currently sits tied with Margie Kolat (Arkansas State, 1991-1994) for third all-time garnering 2,291 career digs. Sartori added 15 kills on a team-high .379 attack percentage and stuffed four shots for the victors. Rice held a 16-11 advantage in game one before Houston stormed back scoring 12 of the next 19 points evening the game at 23. The two teams traded side outs staying all square to 29 apiece. Houston made the most off an Owl attack error and a ball handeling error to take the opening game, 31-29.
Houston used that momentum to build a 16-9 lead in the second game. The Cougars went up by as many as nine at 23-14 on a Ritter kill. Rice cut the deficit down to five at 25-20, but consecutive kills by Sartori coupled with a Farmer spike allowed Houston to take a two-game lead heading into the locker room, 30-23. The Owls were determined not to head across town empty-handed grabbing closely contested game three, 30-28. Rice evened the match fighting off four match points edging out a scrappy 36-34 game four win. "When we fell behind a little bit, everyone started to scramble," Sartori said. "We lost our focus for a moment because we were trying not to make a mistake instead of going after the win." Houston regrouped in the deciding fifth game with strong defense holding the Owls to a -.056 attack percentage on seven errors. Ritter and Farmer combined for five of the six Cougar kills in game five as the Cougars emerged with a 15-9 victory. Kristina Hoban and Jessica Holderness put together a triple-doubles for the Owls. Hoban knocked home 15 kills on a team-best .429 attack percentage to go along with 49 assists and 10 digs, while Holderness added 12 kills, 11 assists and 17 digs. Two other Rice players tallied double-doubles in the loss, headlined by Karyn Morgan with 18 kills and 22 digs. Olaya Pazo chipped in 18 kills and 17 digs. The Cougars return to action on Friday at Tulsa (20-5, 7-4 C-USA) before heading to SMU (11-12, 7-4 C-USA) Sunday. Houston knocked off both schools in three games earlier this season at home. "Both of those teams are going to be fired up and ready to play us," Walton said. "Both also have all week to prepare for us." "It's going to be a battle against Tulsa and we know that," Gonzalez said. "They are going to be ready for us like we were ready for UTEP. We just have to go out there and play our style of volleyball." First serve against the Golden Hurricane is scheduled for 7pm. Cougar Bytes:
|
