Sept. 9, 2010
PULLMAN, Wash. -- Junior Meagan Ganzer had her second consecutive 30-kills match to lead the Washington State Cougars volleyball team (4-3) to a 25-20, 25-23, 28-26 win over Eastern Washington (1-6), at the Nike Cougar Challenge tournament Thursday night before 639 fans at Bohler Gym.
Ganzer, from Black Diamond, Wash., had 30 kills with four errors in 53 attacks for a .491 hitting percentage. Ganzer had 30 kills in the WSU 3-1 win at San Francisco last Saturday night.
WSU's Brittany Tillman and Vanessa Murray each had five kills while Marcelina Glab had a match-high six blocks. Sara Biondi had 37 assists and 10 digs. Jordan Levenseller and Oceana Bush also had 10 digs each.
The Eagles' Chenoa Covaire had 10 kills (.350) and Shelby Puckett led the team with 9 digs. Setter Lindsay Niemeier and Laney Brown combined for 33 assists. EWU hit .215 for the match and WSU hit .359.
"For having some young kids starting for the first time and knowing they were going to have to play for the whole match, I thought they did a good job in the first two sets," WSU Head Coach Andrew Palileo said. "In the last set you could really see the inexperience of some of our young kids and not so much from the mistakes but from the way they were reacting to situations. A win is a win but we are working towards being able to compete in the Pac-10 and we have to sharpen things up on our side of the net in order to do that in the next couple weeks. Ganzer is carrying us right now but we have to create some more balance or she is not going to make it through the rest of this year."
The first set began with a change in the line-up that found talented sophomore libero Oceana Bush in the front row as sophomore right side hitter Rachel Todorovich is out with an abdominal pull. Freshman Jordan Levenseller played libero for the entire match. The opener belonged to the 6-3 Ganzer who landed 12 of WSU's 19 kills with a .750 hitting percentage, even as Cougars had to battle back at the end of the set to take the 25-20 win.
The Cougars had more than one scare in the second set as they couldn't mount more than a two-point lead in the set. WSU was up 23-21, when EWU tied it up but served into the net to put the Cougs at set point. Glab and Murray combined on a block of Jacque Brown's attack to end the set in the crimson jersey's favor for the 25-23 win.
The Eagles took a 19-14 lead in the third set as the wheels came off the bus for the Cougs. EWU pushed to a 22-17 lead but the Cougars battled back and capitalized on miscues across the net to tie the set at 22. After attack errors by both sides, the score was tied at 23. A long rally resulted in a point for the visitors and Cougar coach Andrew Palileo took a timeout. An attack error tied the score at 24 but Ganzer's monster kill, her 30th, tied the set at 25.Biondi served an ace for the 26th point but EWU slammed one down the middle to knot the set again. A mishandled ball by Laney Brown put Ganzer at the baseline where she aced the serve and the Cougars took the 28-26 win.
"I'm not keeping track of my kills so it pretty much comes as a surprise," Ganzer said. "I'm 6-2 so if I'm not swinging like that it's a problem. Right now we are not strong and our setter is a freshman and inexperienced so we can't connect well in the other positions and why I am getting so many sets. Ideally we should be getting even sets across the board. But it is my responsibility right now to put the ball down. The passing and Sara's sets to the outside are good so I'm working hard for my team."
Friday's tournament action begins at 1 p.m. in Bohler Gym when EWU meets Cal Poly followed by the 7 p.m. match between WSU and Montana State.