DePaul University Athletics
Blue Demons Fall to Houston in Four Games
11/9/2001 12:00:00 AM | WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL
Houston, Texas -- After playing their best volleyball of the season for three games, the Blue Demons came out flat in the fourth game and fell to the Houston Cougars in conference play. The Cougars defeated DePaul 28-30, 30-28, 30-27, 30-21. The loss knocks the Blue Demons to 10-5 in Conference USA and 19-8 overall, while Houston improves to 11-4 in C-USA and 14-10 overall.
"We came out really strong and played our best volleyball of the season for three games," said head coach Dawn Dockstader. "Unfortunately we couldn't sustain our level of play and we fell behind 10-0 in game four. We can't do that and expect to beat a good team like Houston."
The Blue Demons took the opening game 30-28 after hitting .243 as a team. Houston responded by taking the next two games 30-28 and 30-27. The Demons continued their hot play hitting a .353 and .212 in the two games. In the fourth game, the Cougars ran off the first 10 points off the game. DePaul cut the lead to five on several occasions, but couldn't comeback from the early deficit. Houston finished the game off with a 30-21 victory to win the match.
Dockstader said, "After we fell behind 10-0 we gathered our composure and played them even the rest of the way. That was a positive we can take away from this match."
Senior Stephanie Bishop led the Blue Demons with 20 digs and 15 kills with senior Melissa Nordine adding 11 kills, a .364 hitting percentage and 12 digs. Senior Christa Dirr finished with 14 kills and junior Katie Engel led DePaul with 16 kills, a .297 hitting percentage and 11 digs.
Houston senior Jennifer Wittenburg was too much for the Blue Demons to handle finishing with a school single-match record 37 kills to lead the Cougars to victory.
DePaul finishes its conference regular season schedule at TCU Saturday night at 7:30 p.m.
