UH Women's Basketball

UH Baseball

UH looks to rebound on upcoming trip

By Andrew J. Ferraro
Daily Cougar Staff

After a quick start out of the gate, the UH women's tennis team has suffered a bit of a setback.

Winning the first three matches of the season was easy. And there was nothing harder than losing the last two as Houston, now 3-2 overall, was handily defeated by Texas Christian 8-1 and Louisiana-Monroe (formerly Northwestern State) 5-1 last weekend in Houston.

Senior Galina Seliounina figured in two of the three Cougar wins as she and doubles partner Mette Sigmundstad defeated TCU's Jessika Kjellgren and Leoni Weirich, 8-4 in No. 1 doubles competition. She then beat UL-Monroe's Katherine Nasser, 7-6, 7-5 on Sunday in the No. 1 singles competition.

Due to rain, Sunday's match was delayed and moved downtown to the Metropolitan Racquet Club. Because UL-Monroe had to travel, the two teams did not compete in doubles after ULM took five of six singles matches.

Despite the lopsided scores, UH coach Jennifer Hyde said the matches were really much closer than they may have appeared on the scoresheet.

Had the Cougars scored a point here or there, they could have extended the match long enough to steal a win. But according to the first year coach, the edge went to the opposition.

"I think physically, they were prepared," Hyde said. "We hit the ball well, but when push came to shove, we weren't prepared to grind out the match."

Friday's 8-1 loss to TCU did little to prepare the team for the top 25-ranked ULM team that came in on Sunday and took a quick hold of the Cougars. Despite being outscored 13-2 over the weekend, Hyde said that the two teams that beat them over the weekend did little to impress her.

"I don't think those two teams have anything on us, size-wise or physically," Hyde said. "I just thought they wanted to win more. Really it was a matter of discipline and they played us tough, point-for-point. On Sunday, we could have been up 4-2 going into doubles, but again, I just think they wanted it more."

But in order to move on, Houston is going to have to focus on the next match and simply forget about the weekend setback.

Teams are going to have weekends like that. Just as in any sport, there are times in the year when you are going to slump and it is simply going to take winning the next match to turn things around.

The Cougar road trip starts Friday in Baton Rouge with a tough match against Louisiana State. After that the team busses down to New Orleans for a match with Conference-USA rival Tulane on Saturday.

A year ago, the Cougars were defeated by LSU, 7-2 at home, in their third match of the year. Additionally, UH was 0-2 in 1999 against Tulane as the Green Wave defeated the Cougars 5-4 on March 15 and then again in the C-USA Tournament on April 18 by the score of 5-3.

So what is the best way to rebound from an 0-2 weekend going into a pair of matches against teams that swept you a year before?

"You have to hope that we learned from those losses last weekend," Hyde said. "We have to take some of that anger with us on the road and be ready to win."

With the team in New Orleans, Hyde was asked if the team would get any free time to "explore" the wonders of New Orleans. The answer:

"We are going to have a nice, early curfew and then have breakfast together Saturday morning," Hyde said. "They will be on their best behavior."

C-USA Player of the Week

Caroline Weems of Southern Mississippi went 2-0 on the week with a 6-0, 6-1 win against Arkansas-Little Rock's Layla Tohme. She also posted a 6-1, 6-1 win against McNeese State's Betina Crooks later in the week and teamed up with Almut Gaude to go 2-0 in doubles action. 

Against UALR, Weems fueled a comeback from a 5-2 deficit to win 8-6. Southern Miss defeated McNeese State 9-0 and edged UALR 5-4.