Third sets have not been a charm recently for the Houston Lady Tigers volleyball team.
Five days after losing to Conway in three sets, the Lady Tigers were defeated 25-9, 22-25, 25-20 Tuesday night by Salem.
Houston (5-5-1) rallied from an early 7-1 deficit in the decisive set and only trailed 12-11 following consecutive kills by Kaitlyn Kell and freshman Alexa Ichord. But Salem scored five of the next six points to pad its lead and was not threatened the rest of the way.
The Lady Tigers had eight missed serves and 23 hitting errors.
“The only thing I can say about our performance is that we came out of the locker room not ready to play ball,” Houston coach Debbie James said. “Those 31 errors pretty much handed our opponent the game on a silver platter.”
Kell and Amber Honig led the Lady Tigers with seven kills apiece. Sarah Pierce had 12 assists, and Erica Keeney had four aces.
On Thursday, Conway was able to score points in bunches in a 25-14, 17-25, 25-18 win. Houston let a 12-8 advantage slip away in the third set as Conway scored 10 of the next 11 points.
Honig had eight kills and six blocks. Pierce also had six blocks to go with 10 assists and five kills. Ichord led Houston with 11 assists.
After the Lady Tigers rallied to tie the first set at 12-all, Conway scored 13 of the set’s final 15 points.
Beginning with Kell’s kill, the Lady Tigers scored the first seven points of the second set and led 15-5. Conway got within 16-11 before consecutive kills from Honig and Keeney extended the advantage.
Honig’s ace put Houston in front 7-3 in the final set, and the advantage was 12-8 before Conway’s rally gave the Lady Bears an 18-13 lead.