SUNDAY, Nov. 3 1 p.m. Houston vs. Wichita State Live StatsWatch
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW
The Cougars began American Athletic Conference play 7-0 for the first time since 2000, before dropping its battle with Cincinnati, to move to 7-1 in conference action, matching their best eight-match start in conference since 2000.
Houston is no stranger when it comes to going the distance, as the Cougars lead nation with 12 five-set contests on the season. Overall, Houston is 8-4 in such contests, six of which came in five-straight matches (9/21-10/6).
The Cougars are the only school in the conference to have more than one player win a Player of the Week honor, having already won four. This is the first time in program history Houston has had four different players earn a conference Player of the Week ( Abbie Jackson , OPOW-9/9; Katie Karbo , DPOW-9/23; Megan Duncan , OPOW-9/30; Rachel Tullos , DPOW-10/21) honor.
As one of the best liberos to come through the Houston program, Karbo continues to the climb the charts in the records book. Karbo enters the weekend leading the nation with 538 digs on the year and leads all Division I active players with her 2,257 career digs, which ranks second in program history.
Junior setter Abby Irvine leads Houston’s balanced attacked, as she enters the weekend leading The American with 15 double-doubles on the year. The Cougars are 11-4 this season when she posts a double-double.
Against one of the most potent offenses in the country, freshman middle blocker Rachel Tullos put together a performance for the ages when she posted a conference record 17 blocks in the five-set thriller against Cincinnati (10/20). Her 17 stops at the net were also the most blocks in a single match by a Division I player this season.
The University of Houston Volleyball team jumped out to a 1-0 match lead but was unable to sustain its edge, as the Cougars fell to Tulsa in four sets (28-26, 17-25, 19-25, 26-28) on Friday night.
Houston drops to 14-11 on the year and 8-3 in American Athletic Conference play, having split its season series with the Golden Hurricane (14-10, 7-4 American) for the first time since 2015.
This marks the first time the Cougars (15-12, 9-3 American) have hit above .300 against a conference foe since Houston posted a .364 clip on Nov. 10, 2017 against USF. Of those with 10 or more attacks on the day, Houston had four players surpass the .275 plateau, which was led by sophomore Isabel Theut’s .583 clip.
