The Roundup: WSU volleyball splits pair of home matches

It was homecoming for Cougar volleyball and soccer Friday night, but only one of the teams came away with the win. Volleyball defeated Oregon St. (tough weekend for the Beavs) 3-1 while the soccer team fell to Arizona 1-0.

Everyone got into the action for the volleyball team Friday night as 13 players played in front of 1,092 at Bohler Gym. Haley MacDonald had a well-rounded match for WSU as she recorded 35 assists 11 digs and a career- and match-high seven blocks.

In what has become the standard, Kyra Holt had a strong outing, registering 15 kills with a .324 hitting percentage. Senior Kate Sommer also put together a nice match with 27 digs.

After Sommer's fruitful match on Friday, she needed only seven more digs to claim the WSU all-time career digs record. She did that, with extra room to spare in Sunday's 3-1 loss to Oregon. Sommer got 13 digs against the Ducks to giver her 1,779 in her career. That was enough to put her ahead of Kelly Hyder, who had held the record since 2009.

While the volleyball season isn't likely going how she envisioned it, as the Cougs are 3-5 in Pac-12 play, this team has shown significant improvements from last year's team and this record will surely sweeten things for her.

"I think it's a great accomplishment for sure," Sommer said. "Any athlete wants to set a record, but it's not necessarily something I always think about. I just think about ‘What can I do to give to my team?' so it's nice to see numbers in front of it."

The leadership she provides this season as the lone senior will probably be felt throughout the program for years to come. Head Coach Jen Greeny talked about how proud she was of the senior.

"She's a great player and she's meant so much to this program," Greeny said. "Hopefully we can continue to make that number go up-and-up for the remainder of the season."

The Cougs will travel to the Bay Area on Friday to take on No. 6 Stanford and then Cal on Sunday. You can catch the Sunday match at 11 a.m. on Pac-12 Networks.

The soccer team dropped its only game of the weekend on Friday against Arizona in front of a record crowd at the Lower Soccer Field. 2,251 fans showed up for the soccer homecoming game that saw the Cougs get shutout. Arizona scored in the 36th minute and WSU failed to put any of their 25 shots in the back of the net.

After the loss the Cougars fell to nine spots to 25th in the polls. They will host their final two conference home games of the season this weekend against Stanford and Cal. Stanford is currently ranked 4th in the country and are undefeated in conference play. The Cougs dropped down to a tie for third in the conference standings with a 4-2 record that the visiting Golden Bears have matched.

This will be a make or break weekend for WSU's conference title hopes. The Cougs play the Cardinal at 7 p.m. on Thursday and the Golden Bears at 1 p.m. on Sunday. Both games will be played at the Lower Soccer Field and can be seen on the Pac-12 Networks.

A pair of Cougar athletic teams got a glimpse of the Pac-12 championships, and performed well against ranked competition. The D-1 Pre-Nationals Cross Country Invitationals was held at Tom Sawyer Park in Louisville, Kentucky, which will also hold the national championships in November. The men finished 13th in the Red race and the women took first in the Black race. Both finished higher than some nationally and regionally ranked teams

The WSU women's golf team finished up play at the Stanford Intercollegiate, Tuesday. The Cougars finished 15th with a total score of 902(+50). Of WSU athletes, Cherokee Kim had the best score, finishing +6 in 30th place.

The Cougs' men's golf team also wrapped up a tournament on Tuesday. They completed the Tavistock Collegiate Invitational in 15th place with a score of 916 (+52). The nation's number one ranked team, Illinois, took home the title after shooting one over as a team.