Oct. 23, 2010

Box Score |  Photo Gallery 

PULLMAN, Wash. -- The Washington State volleyball team (6-13 overall, 0-9 Pac-10) fell in straight sets to No. 25 Arizona (15-7, 4-5) Saturday night in the Breast Cancer Awareness match in Bohler Gym. The Wildcats swept the Cougars with set scores of 25-16, 25-17, and 25-20.

WSU's Meagan Ganzer led all players with 12 kills. Oceans Bush had six digs, Sarah Biondi had 26 assists and Conley Kipp and Marcelina Glab each had a pair of blocks. Faith Hutcherson landed three service aces.

Arizona's Cursty Jackson and Tiffany Owens combined for 21 kills and Owens led the match with 10 digs. Kaylen Bannister had four blocks and setter Paige3 Weber had 31 assists. The Wildcats hit .302 for the match and held WSU to .041, and out-blocked the Cougs 8 to 5.

In the opening set, WSU fought back from a 10-1 deficit to come within four at 12-16, but could not get any closer as Arizona won, 25-16. Ganzer scored six of WSU's nine kills in the set and Hutcherson landed three aces. Cursty Jackson led the Wildcats with four kills. Cougars hit -.028 and Zona hit .333.

The Cougars took an early lead in the second set only to see it disappear as the Wildcats hit .360 and held WSU to a -.040 hitting percentage. Owens had four kills to lead UA while WSU's Glab had two solo blocks in the set.

WSU scored three consecutive points to knot the third set at 17 points but Arizona tallied a trio of points to go up 20-17. After a WSU timeout, Arizona scored on three kills and two Cougar attack errors to win the set 25-20.

When asked what he saw as a positive for the match, Cougar Head Coach Andrew Palileo said, "For the first time this year we had more aces than service errors. We have been trying to be more aggressive with our serve and earn more points. The majority of that came from Faith, with three, which is really good for her. But that would be the one thing I was happy with tonight. I was hoping we could carry the intensity and the effort we brought out last night and that would be another character thing for our team to understand where we are. Both teams had to play five sets last night and we didn't have to travel like Arizona and I thought they came out more fresh. I give them credit for having a disappointing match last night and came out with a little bit more intensity."

Washington State volleyball goes on the road next for matches at No. 8 USC (17-3, 6-3) Friday, Oct. 29 at 7 p.m., and at No. 11 UCLA (15-5, 5-4) Sunday, Oct. 31 at 1 p.m.