Saturday, March 6

Houston 3, Tulsa 1 (22-25, 25-17, 25-19, 25-19)	Box Score
UCF 3, East Carolina 1 (25-21, 25-19, 24-26, 25-19)	Box Score

Houston 3, Tulsa 1

After falling in the first set, the University of Houston Volleyball team stormed back to win three-straight sets and take down Tulsa by a score of 3-1 (22-25, 25-17, 25-19, 25-19) on Saturday afternoon.

With the win, the Cougars (10-2, 6-0 AAC) remain the only undefeated team in the American Athletic Conference West Division and own the most league victories amongst the entire conference. This is the second time in as many years, Houston has started conference 6-0.  Saturday is also the first time since 2008 Houston has swept its season series with Tulsa.

Houston's offense was led by a balanced attack from juniors Kortlyn Henderson (18), Isabel Theut (14) and Kendall Haywood (14), who all surpassed double-digit kills. Henderson's 18 kills led all players in the match.

Commanding the Cougars' front line was freshman Annie, who dished out a match-high 53 assists. Her 20 digs marked a career-high and the third double-double of her career. Junior Torie Frederick also tallied 20 digs.

Set 1
Tulsa led the entire set, but Houston kept the score within arm's reach throughout.
After the Golden Hurricane built a five-point advantage, back-to-back kills from Theut and sophomore Abbie Jackson brough the score to within three at 10-7.
From there, the Cougars narrowed the gap to one on three occasions but never climbed themselves over the hill, as Tulsa took the first set 25-22.

Set 2
The second frame started off as a tightly contested battle, but a kill from sophomore Celeste Darling sparked a 4-0 run from the Cougars to put them in front 17-13.
A kill from Henderson stretched the lead even further, as Houston never looked back from that point, winning 25-17 and tying the match at one.

Set 3
When Tulsa cut Houston's lead to one at 13-12, the Cougars responded with three unanswered points to push the advantage to four.
A block at the net from the Haywood and sophomore Rachel Tullos increased the lead to five at 19-14, which proved to be enough, as Houston went on to win 25-19 and take a 2-1 match lead.

Set 4
Houston started the set trailing by as many as three, but a kill from Henderson ignited an 8-2 run from the Cougars, which put them in front 13-10.
Tulsa then found a rebuttal of its own, rallying off five of the next six points to retake a 15-14 advantage.
The Cougars immediately responded and took the lead for good at the 17-16 mark, where Houston scored eight of the final 11 points to win 25-19 and claim the 3-1 match victory.

UCF 3, East Carolina 1

The UCF volleyball team held off ECU Saturday afternoon at The Venue, 3-1, to move to 10-1 on the season and remain undefeated in conference play.

UCF wasted no time at all getting it going in the match as the Knights took a 6-1 lead in the first set to force an early ECU timeout. The Pirates would make a game of it late, coming to within one point of the Knights' lead, but the black and gold persevered late to pull off the set one victory, 25-21.

The Knights kept the momentum rolling into set two, going up 8-4 to force another early Pirates timeout. Despite the early deficit, ECU came back to tie it at 14. From there, the two sides would trade blows until UCF went on a six-point run late to win the set 25-19.

The black and gold found themselves behind early in set three, 9-3 before rallying back to make it a close game and eventually tie it at 17. A 3-0 run late gave UCF a 23-22 lead, but the Pirates would go on to score the next four of five to steal the set, 26-24.

The Knights seemed to take the third set loss personally as they came out hot in set four, going up 5-0 to force a Pirates timeout. Following the stoppage, ECU would come back to tie the game at nine apiece, but another five-point run by UCF would put them up front, 14-9, and the Knights would not relinquish the lead from there, going on to secure the final set 25-19.

"Day two is always hard when you play a team back-to-back like we did," said head coach Todd Dagenais. "We've seen it all across the league this year, where teams that play each other twice, on day two, the match is much closer… so I was pretty proud, especially after we lost that tight third set."

McKenna Melville continued to show why she is among the best in the league on Saturday, turning in a season-high 21 digs to go along with 19 kills for her sixth straight double-double this season.

Preseason all-conference honoree Anne-Marie Watson also had a nice day from the right side as she hit .313 and knocked down 13 kills.