ABC13.com

September 5, 2007

UH volleyball team outlasts Cal-State Bakersfield in five games

(KTRK/HOUSTON) - The University of Houston volleyball team needed five games to knock off visiting Cal-State Bakersfield 30-22, 17-30, 20-30, 30-28, 15-13 on Wednesday.

The Cougars (2-3) snapped a three-match losing skid as they started off a streak of five matches in the next four days.

"A victory is always good. (When we were) down 2-1, the other team let up a little bit and we played better in the fourth game. In the fifth game we got down and we could have folded and instead we came back pretty well," Cougars head coach Bill Walton said.

Lucy Charuk led the way for UH, tallying a match- and career-high 21 kills. The freshman middle blocker also added seven blocks and a pair of aces.

Justine Farmer also hit for double-digit kills, ending the night with 14 to go along with 10 digs. Robin Fitzgerald finished with a career-best 14 digs and tied a career high with 44 assists.

"We are trying to get (Robin) to understand how to win and get to be consistent with what she does. Winning tonight will help and because she has been setting the last three matches she is starting to learn," Walton said.

UH trailed in all five games and hit just .167 and .159 in Games 2 and 3, respectively. The Cougars hit a match-best .323 in the opening game and tied things up at 20-20, overcoming a four-point deficit and closing it out with a 10-2 run.

The Roadrunners were paced by 17 kills from Rosemary Stribling, 12 from Sarah Norman, 11 from Melissa Myers and 10 from Jodi Hardin. Mystie McNaughton added a match-high 26 digs while Norman tallied seven aces.

Houston is back on the court Thursday at 7 p.m. CDT, taking on Texas-San Antonio in the Convocation Center.

"We have a good weekend coming up. We don't have any time to practice so we have to get better just from playing," Walton said.

UH will also see action on Friday and Saturday at the CenturyTel Premier in San Marcos. The Cougars face off against host Texas State at noon Friday before taking on No. 20 Missouri at 5pm that evening. UH closes out the tournament against Cal State Fullerton at 2pm Saturday.