HOUSTON – After a hot start last weekend that saw the Sugar Bears going into this weekend's tournament with a record of 3-0, the Sugar Bears falter on Friday morning.

The Sugar Bears opened the Flo Hyman Collegiate Cup with the Houston Cougars, an opponent that they've only faced once before. The first set was highly entertaining, back-and-forth, and a touch sloppy. UCA only had four kills in the first set, which was littered with errors by both squads. The Cougars and Sugar Bears soared past 25, but before UCA could blink, the Cougars had taken the first set 27-25.

After the first set, which was fairly even, and saw a handful of Sugar Bear leads, the Cougars truly hit their stride and after the Sugar Bears tied it at seven, Houston really started to gradually pull away. While UCA was once trailing 15-14, the Cougars ran off a huge scoring run to make it 21-14 and would coast to win the second set, 25-18.

With the Sugar Bears finding themselves deep in a 0-2 set hole rather quickly, they would absolutely need to get out to a fast start. Unfortunately for the Sugar Bears, Houston would once again grab a lead in the middle of the set and really never look back, taking the final set, 25-15.

Jamiryana hall had another good showing after last weekend, as she tallied 8 kills. Freshman Caylan Koons once again led the team in assists with 15.

The Sugar Bears will look to put this match in the past  on Saturday, and get to do so by facing some great opponents in Oregon State at 10:00 a.m. and Alabama at 1:30 p.m.