Oct. 22, 2010
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PULLMAN, Wash. -- The Washington State volleyball team (6-12 overall, 0-8 Pac-10) lost in five sets to Arizona State (9-11, 4-4) Friday night in Bohler Gym. ASU won its fourth consecutive conference match with set scores of 18-25, 25-20, 15-25, 25-16, and 15-10.
The Cougars were led by Meagan Ganzer's 19 kills and Rachel Todorovich's 15 kills. Oceana Bush had a match-high 22 digs with Kaleinani Kabalis and Ganzer adding another 29 digs. Brittany Tillman and Conley Kipp each had four blocks and Kipp had a pair of aces. Sara Biondi had 41 assists.
Sarah Reaves led the Sun Devils with 16 kill and had 13 digs. Erica Wilson and Danica Mendivil combined for another 24 kills. Malia Marquardt had six blocks and Wilson added five more. Sarah Johnson had 18 digs with Cat Highmark adding 47 assists and 14 digs.
ASU hit .170 for the match and WSU hit .160. Cougars had the lead in blocks with 12 team blocks to ASU's 11. Each team committed 10 service errors.
There were six ties and two lead changes in the first set but the final score showed WSU on top, 25-18. Reaves had six kills for the Sun Devils as the visitors struggled offensively, hitting .088. Ganzer had five kills as WSU hit .250 in the opener.
The second set was a see-saw battle with ASU going ahead 20-17 and extended it to 23-19. Ganzer laid a huge hit down the center for her sixth kills of the set. Reaves retaliated with a left side attack that put ASU on the line serving for set. Wilson's serve landed in the Cougars' back right corner, an ace that was briefly disputed as whether it was inside the line. ASU hit .344 for this set and WSU dropped to .194.
Cougars took a 13-7 lead in the third and extended it to a 25-15 win. Todorovich has five kills to lead WSU and the team controlled the net with five blocks. WSU held ASU to a .054 hitting percentage.
WSU did not hold the momentum from the third set and fell behind early in the fourth set. ASU took a commanding lead and did not relinquish it, evening the match with the 25-16 fourth set win. The Cougars is .000 for this set.
The Sun Devils went ahead 8-4 in the fifth set but the Cougars closed the gap to 8-7 on kills from Todorovich and Tillman and an ASU hitting error. A highly disputed call of a lift on Biondi put ASU up 9-7 and the Cougs closed to within one on an ASU attack error. The Sun Devils regained the momentum and the finals points came after Wilson landed a pair of attacks and WSU stumbled at the service line twice. ASU wins 15-10.
"I think the fourth set is what lost us that match," WSU Head Coach Andrew Palileo said. "When the girls came out (of the break), and they had that feeling, because we haven't won a lot of sets, that feeling of accomplishment. That is why I called an early timeout. I could see it in their eyes and their body language that they thought that they had it and that Arizona State was going to go away. They did follow the game plan defensively. Thought we did a good job on Reaves, she only had 16 kills and five errors so we held her. It was good to have Rachel back (playing) to offset Ganzer a little bit and balance us out more. The middles were a little more involved but need to be more involved. We did a good job blocking. When you make five errors in the last have of the fifth set you are not going to win a lot of matches. We made way too many errors and missed too many easy opportunities to get the ball back and make a run."
Washington State takes on No. 25 Arizona (14-7, 3-5), coming off a 3-2 loss at No. 7 Washington, Saturday, Oct. 23, in the Attacking Breast Cancer match where the Cougs wear pink jerseys and the first 100 fans will be given pink T-shirts. Fans who wear pink to the match pay only $2 to attend.
