Cougs sweep opponents to remain undefeated at home

The Cougs are now three-for-three on the season while playing at home in Bohler Gym, after the WSU volleyball team were crowned undefeated champions of the Cougar Challenge this past weekend.

All eyes quickly fell on the fifth-year transfer from Arkansas-Little Rock, Laura Jansen, who had 13 kills in the first two matches of the tournament and 14 kills in the final match against CSU Bakersfield on Friday night.

Match 1: WSU def. Cal Baptist (25-9, 25-13, 25-21)

In the first match on Thursday, the Cougs swept the Cal Baptist Lancers in three sets. This was WSU fans’ first time being able to watch the Cougs this season and all I have to say is “wow.” This team is loaded with talent and has some pretty great players on the bench that come in and make several key plays constantly.

Being able to finally have Jasmine Martin back has been very nice, especially on the line. Jansen and Martin as well as Pia Timmer, Magda Jehlarova, Argentina Ung, Katy Ryan, and Karly Basham have been a really great group to lead this team to another tournament this season.

Jehlarova finished with six blocks and a couple of solo blocks. Ryan and Timmer had three blocks while adding to the Cougs total of 12 blocks on the night. Ung had a really great first match having 35 assists, a couple of blocks, and some kills. Basham had 10 digs and a couple of assists.

In the first set, the Cougs held the Lancers to a hitting percentage of .000 while WSU hit a .484.

WSU won the first set 25-9, the second set 25-13, and the third 25-21.

Match 2: WSU def. Belmont (25-7, 21-25, 25-12, 25-20)

The next day of the Cougar Challenge proved to be another great day for Cougar Volleyball with some more powerful kills from the Cougs’ side of the court.

In their match against Belmont on Friday, the first of two that day, the Cougs had a great match behind the service line’s twelve aces. Ryan and Jansen both had 13 kills. Ryan had a hitting percentage of .435 and Jansen at .310. WSU’s fantastic libero had the most notable performance of the day. She tied an all-time service record with seven service aces in one set.

Jehlarova passed her coach Jen Greeny in all-time career block assists. She is now ranked seventh in WSU history and tallied six for a second match.

The Cougs won the first set and the third and fourth set but dropped the second set 25-21.

In the first set, the Cougs had a hitting percentage of .409. With the final score of 25-7, the Cougs went into a second set that would prove to be a little challenging.

Belmont had 17 kills in set number two, a percentage of .405, and only two errors. The Cougs lost 25-21 with seven errors from the WSU side of the court.

Going into the third set, the Cougs came back with a boom. With only one error recorded and a match-high percentage of .688 and holding Belmont to a .154 hitting percentage, the Cougs won 25-12. The Cougs also won the fourth set 25-20.

Match 3: WSU def. CSU Bakersfield (25-19, 25-13, 21-25, 25-15)

In the second performance of the day, the Cougs struggled with serving but overall the WSU came out strong and won their third and final tournament match against Cal State Bakersfield. The Cougs came out and played very well overall but the most stand-out performance was Jansen and her offensive plays.

Jansen led the Cougs with 14 kills, her third time leading the Cougs with kills. Jansen was also named the MVP for the Cougar Challenge Tournament. Ryan finished with 10 kills and was also named to the all-tournament team with Jansen.

Martin had a hitting percentage of .429, while Jehlarova hit .381 and Timmer hit .259. All three had nine kills while Basham led the team with 14 digs.

The Cougs only lost one set but came back to win it. Now, WSU is on the road for basically the whole month of September for pre-season tournaments before going to Seattle to open up Pac-12 play against UW.