The Cougs secured their sixth victory, in as many matches, on Saturday by beating the Montana Grizzlies. Washington State didn’t play its best match, but they still managed to win against an overmatched opponent -- although Montana did manage to end WSU’s eleven set winning streak. It was an interesting match that saw the Cougs easily out hit their opponents from the Big Sky Conference.
The first and second set pretty much went as expected for the Cougs, as they easily dominated the Griz. That being said, Washington State struggles with the serves continued tonight; but fortunately for them, the Griz absolutely struggled hitting the ball in the first couple of sets – in fact, the Griz had a negative hitting percentage until midway through the second set-- and it led to two easy victories for the Cougs.
Things turned around in the third set as the Griz put together their most complete performance of the match, and it extended the match for another round. The Cougs actually had controlled the third set for the majority of it, but they couldn’t finish off Montana…but Montana couldn’t finish off the Cougs either; Montana had the first set point, and coughed it up to WSU. Then WSU had a match point and coughed it up and Montana tied it; it took the Griz two more set points before they finally secured the victory.
In the fourth, and final, set it quickly became clear that the Cougs were not happy it how the third set ended. They quickly rocketed out to a 7-1 lead, and never really looked back. Washington State stomped the Griz, 25-11 to remain undefeated on the season.