Cougars run record to 5-0
Washington State University passed its toughest test of the young volleyball season Wednesday night.
The Cougars were playing their first road match and they were thumped by Gonzaga in the opening game, but WSU kept its cool and rolled to an impressive 20-30, 30-22, 30-26, 30-24 non-conference victory in front of 703 at the Martin Centre.
“They’re the toughest team we’ve played by far,” said Cougars coach Brian Heffernan, whose team improved to 5-0 for the first time since 2002. “I didn’t think we competed very well in the first game. We knew they would be ready. I thought after that we rose to match their competitiveness and we became a lot more aggressive.”
Gonzaga (2-2), which had moments of what coach Kip Yoshimura called “incredible volleyball,” couldn’t sustain its early momentum.
“That first game showed us some of the potential we have as a team,” Yoshimura said. “The last three kind of showed things we need to work on. A lot of it is composure and it’s a little bit frustrating because we have so many seniors and people who have been here before. But it’s just like a skill – we have to learn that.”
WSU, which defeated Gonzaga for the 18th time in the last 19 meetings, took a 6-3 lead early in the first game, but the Bulldogs posted a .433 hitting percentage and used five team blocks to pull away to the 30-20 win.
The Cougars got in offensive sync in the second game. Middle blocker Cassie Robbins had four kills and three blocks as WSU began dominating at the net. Meanwhile, Gonzaga had six of its eventual 20 serving errors.
The swing game was the third, which was knotted at 15, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 and 23. Senior middle blocker Tara West had two kills to put WSU in front and senior setter Maureen Perez closed out the 30-26 win with consecutive kills.
Senior Adetokunbo Faleti broke open a tight fourth game. She had four kills and a block to turn a 17-all tie into a 22-18 WSU advantage. She added another kill to make it 28-23 and WSU closed it out on two Gonzaga miscues.
Faleti finished with a match-high 13 kills, leading a balanced attack that included 11 kills by Jackie Albright and West.
” ‘T’ is our best scorer and she’s playing a little bit out of position right now,” said Heffernan, referring to Faleti by her nickname. “She has a knee issue, so we’re trying to be careful with that.”
Sophomore Michelle Boevers and junior Elaina Renius each had 11 kills for Gonzaga, which finished with a .182 hitting percentage but found few holes in WSU’s blocking as the match wore on.
“They did a better job blocking, but I think a lot of it was our passing,” Yoshimura said. “We weren’t on with our passing so it becomes a little easier to read.”
WSU travels to Bozeman for a tournament at Montana State University on Friday and Saturday. The Bulldogs will play host to No. 8 Washington at 7 p.m. Friday in the opening round of the Gonzaga Tournament.