Match Stats
- Washington State defeats Arizona 3-0 (27-25, 25-24, 25-16)
- Washington State improves to 17-5
- Arizona falls to 13-8
Press Releases
Washington State:
The last time the Cougars won in Tucson was in 2006, and the last time the Cougars swept the Wildcats in Tucson was in 1995. WSU also swept Arizona State Wednesday night and the last time WSU defeated both ASU and Arizona back-to-back on their home courts was in 1995.
The Cougars dealt Arizona only its second home loss of the 2016 season (No. 21 Oregon defeated Arizona 3-1, Oct. 1).
Holt’s 14 kills led the Cougs while her 14 digs led the match and moved her to No. 9 on the WSU career digs all-time list with 1,075 digs. She hit .300 for the match and also served two aces and had three blocks.McKenna Woodford added nine kills, nine digs and an ace. Taylor Mimshad four kills, two aces, and led the match with six blocks, followed byCasey Schoenlein‘s five kills and five blocks. Claire Martin also had five blocks as the Cougs out-blocked the Wildcats 11.5 to four. Haley MacDonald and Nicole Rigoni combined for 31 assists.
Arizona was led by Kalei Mau’s 14 kills followed by Kendra Dahlke’s 10 kills. Laura Larson had 13 digs with Penina Snuka adding 11 digs in addition to her 36 assists. McKenzie Jacobson led the Wildcats with three blocks.
WSU hit .222 for the match and held Arizona to a .153 hitting percentage. Arizona had 44 kills and 50 digs while WSU had 38 kills and 44 digs. There were 20 ties and 11 lead changes in the first set with WSU prevailing 27-25. The Cougars had one block in the first set, four in the second set and 6.5 in the third set.
“Arizona is a tough, tough team, especially at home, and to come in here and play really well and win in three is pretty spectacular from this team. I’m very proud of them and the way we battled the entire night,” WSU Head Coach Jen Greeny said. “Winning the first set was huge. We’ve been talking about starting a little faster, being aggressive in the first set and coming out strong. I think we did that. It always sets the tone for the other team to have to dig out after losing the first set. We were in some tight situations and we really came through.”
“Our blocking started out a little bit slow but against some really great Arizona pin hitters. We adjusted as the night went on,” Greeny said. “I was very proud of the way we made those adjustments and we need to continue to do that. We asked everybody to do something just a little bit better. Nobody has to be perfect. Nobody has to play out of their minds. But everybody has to play a little bit more consistent and I think we did that this week.”
“Kyra is unbelievable. And she has been unbelievable in the past but it hasn’t been this consistent,” Greeny said. “She is mentally really strong right now; working hard, leading the team and keeping everybody focused so it’s not just on the court but off the court that she’s leading as well.”
When asked about the team achieving the wins in sweeps on the road, Holt said, “The difference was that we come out strong in the first set. Being aggressive from the beginning and in the middle and the end.”
WSU stays on the road another week with a Fri., Oct. 28 match at No. 14 Stanford and a Sat., Oct. 29 match at California. The WSU versus Stanford match will be at 6 p.m. and televised live on the Pac-12 Network.
Arizona:
TUCSON – Senior libero Laura Larson collected her 1,000th career dig, but Arizona volleyball fell in straight sets on Friday night to 18th-ranked Washington State (27-25, 25-23, 25-16).
“Well certainly a disappointing finish for us after a couple of good weeks,” said head coachDave Rubio. “I thought Washington State played really well tonight. Those guys really rallied together and they played what I thought was a flawless match.”
Arizona out-dug Washington State 50-44 in the match with Larson (13 digs) leading the way. It was Larson’s 33rd double-digit dig match in her last 36th. The senior from Lakeville, Minnesota became the 16th player in Arizona history to reach the 1,000 dig mark.
The Cougars notched 11.5 blocks, including six in the third set, as the Cats struggled to a .153 hitting percentage in the match.
Kalei Mau had 14 kills to lead the Wildcats and Penina Snuka posted her 13th double-double of the season (36 assists, 11 digs).
The Cats fell in a pair of closely-contested sets prior to the intermission, but Washington State ran away with the third to sweep the match.
“I think all of us go into the locker thinking we have to get it together, we’re going to go out there stronger,” said Mau on going into the intermission down 0-2 despite losing each set by two points. “We definitely changed our mentalities getting out of the locker and I think Washington State had their own agenda, saying they should close out fast and it was just too much for us to handle, just when we were starting to start the game. It’s the sport. It was a good job for them.”
The Wildcats could have changed the complexion of the match, but failed to convert on two set points in the first set.
“I thought the match really rested for us in game 1,” said Rubio. “In game 1 we had opportunities, we just couldn’t play sharp enough. We didn’t act on moments that counted the most. We just couldn’t get our footing after that. They continued to play aggressive and they were very low error and sharp, and we were not. Unfortunately I do not think we played well together tonight, we didn’t play well as a team tonight.”
The Wildcats could not convert a pair of set points and despite registering 20 kills, Arizona was unable to close out the first set. The Cougars came back to win the first set 27-25.
The Cougars used a late 4-0 run to turn an 18-all tie to a 22-18 lead on their way to a 25-23 victory to take a 2-0 lead.
Washington State cruised to a 25-13 victory in the third set to close out the match.
UP NEXT: Arizona will host seventh-ranked Washington at 11 a.m. MST on Sunday, televised by the Pac-12 Networks.
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