Sept. 22, 2000

Box Score

PULLMAN, Wash. -- The Arizona volleyball team, ranked 10th in the USA Today/AVCA Coaches Top 25 Poll, swept Washington State 15-8, 15-4, 15-5, before 1,630 fans in the Cougars' return to Bohler Gym Friday night on the WSU Pullman campus.

Arizona is now 9-1 overall, 2-0 in Pacific-10 Conference action, while WSU moves to 9-3 overall and 0-3 in conference play. Arizona is the third consecutive top 10 team WSU has faced in the past week after losing at #6 USC and #7 UCLA last week.

The Wildcats took all the air out of the festivities surrounding the much-heralded return to Bohler Gym after a two-year hiatus for renovations. Arizona needed seven attempts at game service in the first game, and gave up three points along the way, but really never lost control of the 15-8 win.

Arizona roared to an 11-2 lead in game two before winning 15-4, and even though WSU put up a struggle in game three, the Wildcats dominance at the net made the 15-5 win, and match sweep a lock.

UA's Allison Napier led the match with 14 kills and Marisa DeLee added 11 kills and 6 blocks. Setter Dana Burkholder gave the Wildcats 42 assists and led was the only player in double-figure digs with 15.

WSU was led by LaToya Harris' 12 kills. WSU hit .106 on the night while UA banged away a .365 hitting percentage. The Wildcats out-blocked the Cougs 15 to 4.

"No, it wasn't the debut we wanted," Cougar coach Cindy Fredrick said. "I want to know who the heck set us up to play USC, UCLA and Arizona first in the Pac-10 this year? What a treat. I wondered if it (the hoopla around returning to Bohler Gym) was more than they were ready to handle. It shouldn't be that way. It should be so exciting and so fun and I was afraid that they might be a little bit overwhelmed with the whole Bohler thing that's been given to them. And not wanting to lose in there their first match. But I also think Arizona came in saying we're just going to take this away. They are a very, very good team. I would put them up there with USC and UCLA very easily. They come at you from all different directions, they are very good blockers and they're huge. When you look at the blocks, 15 to 4 - that's huge. And Burkholder is a fantastic setter, and geez, she got 15 digs.

With regards to preparing for Arizona State Saturday night, Fredrick said, "I think we'll readjust defensively and probably play a different defense. Hopefully the hitters are a little more on. I was afraid the whole tempo was set (tonight) when Chelsie (Schafer) came out and had four hitting errors in a row. That's not a good way to start a match."

Cougar sophomore LaToya Harris: "We started slow and needed to come together and I guess that wasn't happening today. We need to play our game and not worry too much about what they're doing except when they're running their plays . If we had just worried about ourselves and got the job done on our side it would have been a little easier. We need to communicate more on defense as well and stay in our disciplined positions. We'll pick that up tomorrow. Everybody's capable of blocking and anything can happen. It's all about being smart, not physically hitting hard, you have to out-smart the blockers."

WSU senior Trina Kightlinger: "We made serving and hitting errors a lot. We missed our serves a lot and that's just a mental error. We need to focus on our strengths. We need to do our job - blocking, hitting, serve receive, passing - we can do all that and if we get it going on our side of the net, we can do it."

As to playing in Bohler Gym: "It was fun to have the crowd closer than in Beasley," Harris said. "The gym was awesome and the crowd being there supporting us was great," Kightlinger said. "We were all really excited to come back in here (to Bohler Gym), especially Cindy since she's been gone for two years. None of us had played in here before but we were all really pumped for it. We really just wanted to show our crowd and our school what we could do and it didn't happen tonight but we're all looking forward to tomorrow night."

Washington State hosts Arizona State, 3-0 winners over Washington Friday night, in a 7 p.m. match at Bohler Gym Saturday night.

#10 Arizona (9-1, 2-0) def. Washington State (9-3, 0-3) 15-8, 15-4, 15-5
STATISTICS:
KILLS: Napier (UA) 14, L. Harris (WSU) 12.
ASSISTS: Burkholder (UA) 42, Surplus (WSU) 34.
DIGS: Burkholder (UA) 15, L. Harris (WSU) 8.
BLOCKS: DeLee (UA) 6, L. Harris (WSU) 2, Tano (WSU) 2.
Attendance: 1,630.