WSU volleyball comes home after long road stretch

Is anyone else excited to see Washington State take on Oregon for the first home Pac-12 volleyball match this season? I know I am! The Cougs are heading home after a nine-match road stretch, finishing up their away matches in California this last weekend, beating Cal (3-0) and losing to Stanford (1-3).

Cal Match Spet. 30 Highlights

On Friday, Sept. 30, WSU and Cal took the court. The Cougs won 3-0 (25-17, 25-11, 25-12). The Cougs swept the Bears in a true Coug fashion. Senior Magda Jehlarova broke a single-match record with eleven recorded blocks. Jehlarova also tied for 13 side outs with Pia Timmer.

Jehlarova recorded eleven blocks to take the record for the Cougs. Not only was this a record but it was also a career-best. To top off her day, Jehlarova also lead the Cougs with a hitting percentage of .545 and also had a match-high of 13 kills.

Jehlarova isn’t just a record holder at WSU, but she also is the lead in the Pac-12 for blocks per set at 1.42 and third in career hitting percentage with a .366. Already in the WSU history books, Jehlarova keeps on going. She is top-10 in all significant career categories in program history.

Jehlarova also tied for 13 side outs with Pia Timmer. While Jehlarova broke her record, senior Timmer joined the 1,000 career kill club. Timmer also shared the side-out lead with Jehlarova.

Timmer also passed former player and current head coach Jen Greeny on the all-time career kills list recording 1,011 kills.

With this win, the Cougs also took the third-best hitting percentage place in the Pac-12. The team had a .292-hitting percentage at the end of their match against Cal. This also moved the Cougs to the 13^th highest team hitting percentage in the nation. So far this season the Cougs remain perfect when playing unranked teams with a higher hitting percentage than the team on the other side of the court. In this last match, the Cougs had a hitting percentage of .368 while Cal hit in the negative numbers coming in at a -.035.

After a record-setting night, the Cougs traveled to Stanford for their Sunday match for the final road match before coming back to Pullman.

Stanford Match Oct. 2 Highlights

Although the Cougs lost 3-1 against the number nine Stanford (19-25, 25-16,15-25, 23-25) in four matches, the Cougs still had a stellar performance.

Jehlarova was on the leaderboard again for the Cougs with 12 kills and added eight more blocks for the night. Fifth-year Laura Jansen led the team with 15 kills and a hitting percentage of .300.

Setter Argentina Ung tallied five kills and 31 assists with a hitting percentage of .167. The Cougs had two players in negative percentages for the night but had four others above .100. Timmer had eight kills and 13 digs which was just two short of a double-double. Timmer now has 1,020 career kills and continues to climb on the program's all-time kill list.

Libero Karly Basham was right up there with Ung being all over the court. With seven assists and nine digs, she contributed to the total 58 digs that the Cougs tallied on the court.

First Set

The opening set was a close one. The Cougs battled to tie the Cardinal 19-19, and Stanford went on a six-score run to end the match. The Cougs had ten errors on the night that didn’t help to fall in the first.

Second Set

Jehlarova was the one that sparked the offense for the Cougs. This proved not to be enough but the Cougs tried to battle back but the Stanford reached 25 first. Jehlarova helped the Cougs go on an early

In the second match as a team, the Cougs held Stanford to a .000 hitting percentage with only six kills on 31 attempts. Basham had four assists while Ung had nine digs in the second set. This would be the only set that the Cougs won of the day. The only other set that would come close was the fourth set.

Third Set

After a winning opening point, the Cougs weren’t able to hold onto it. Stanford started with an early lead that would lead to them winning by ten points. WSU was only held to eight kills in the third. Stanford outscored the Cougs four to one but it wasn’t enough and the Cougs won 25-15.

Fourth Set

After two of the four services aces from Timmer, the Cougs went on a six-point run lead around the midpoint of the fourth. WSU tried to keep pushing their lead and tie the match, but Stanford reached the magic number first. The Cougs did lead 22-19 but Stanford came back on a six-to-one lead late in the fourth to end the match with a final score of 25-23.

WSU is coming home this Friday, October 7 at 7 p.m. to take on the Ducks of the University of Oregon. You can catch the match on the Pac-12 Network. That following Sunday, the Cougs will also play the Beavers of Oregon State University at 12 p.m. also on the Pac-12 Network.

LINKS

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