Saturday, October 18, 2008

Volleyball Downs UCF in Five-Set Thriller

HOUSTON, TEXAS (October 18, 2008) Led by a season-best 26 kills from senior outside hitter Justine Farmer, the University of Houston volleyball team posted an impressive five-set victory Friday night over UCF (23-25, 25-20, 21-25, 26-24 and 15-10) at Athletics/Alumni Center.

The win improves the Cougars’ overall record this season to 12-8 and 4-3 in Conference USA action, while UCF falls to 13-8 on the year and 5-3 in league play.

In addition to the big match from Farmer, the Cougars got 14 kills from freshman outside hitter Ingrida Zauere and 13 from sophomore middle blocker Lucy Charuk.

Blocking was a big reason for UH’s success as the team racked up a season-high 20 blocks on the night, led by Charuk, who piled up 12 block assists. Cougar setter Kelsey King added 60 assists.

In the early portion of the match, UH was able to build a 16-11 first set advantage. The Knights, however, took nine of the next 14 points to pull within one point at 21-20. The Cougars added two straight points to force a UCF timeout with the home squad leading 23-20. After the break it was the Knights who responded, reeling off five consecutive points to take the opening stanza, 25-23.

The Cougars jumped out 11-1 advantage in set two on their way to a 25-20 win before dropping a 25-21 decision in the third set.

During the fourth set, UH was forced to rally from down 17-12 before eventually taking the set 26-24 to send the match to the final and deciding stanza.

In set five, Charuk let the way with four kills and the Cougars got a pair of block assists from Kinsey Cave and Erin Rice to secure the overall match victory.


UH is back in action on Saturday night when it host Southern Miss in a 7 p.m. match at the Athletics/Alumni Center.

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