Oct. 8, 2010

Box Score

SEATTLE, Wash. -- Washington State (6-9 overall, 0-5 Pac-10) fell to No. 9 Washington (15-1, 5-1) Friday night with set scores of 29-27, 25-18, and 25-15 before 3,865 fans at Hec Edmundson Pavilion.

Meagan Ganzer led the Cougs with 17 kills and was the lone WSU player in double-digit kills. Ganzer also had one ace and three blocks. Kaleinani Kabalis had 10 digs and Sara Biondi had 29 assists. WSU committed 13 service errors in the three-set match.

UW's Kindra Carlson, Bianca Rowland and Becky Perry combined for 32 kills with Rowland hitting .600 for the night. Jenna Hagglund had 33 assists and Jenna Orlandini added 10 digs. Lauren Barfield led the match with four blocks.

The first set was an exciting see-saw battle with 13 ties and six lead changes. Each squad had several runs of points with the Cougars tallying four consecutive points twice and five straight points another time. WSU was serving for set point at 24-23 but Carlson's kill knotted the set and then she moved to the Husky baseline and served an ace to put the Dawgs at set point. Carlson's next serve went long and the score was tied at 25. Rowland and Ganzer traded successful attacks to tie it up at 26. Carlson landed her next attack but Orlandini served into the net to place the set score at 27-all. A kill by Perry was followed by Ganzer's errant attack giving the Huskies the 29-27 win. Carlson and Ganzer had six kills each in the opener for their respective teams. UW hit .176 and WSU hit a mere .048.

The Huskies took the early lead in the second set and never looked back. Cougars laced together a trio of points late in the set to close the score to 21-16 but UW prevailed 25-18. The Dawgs hit .417 in this set with only 1 error in 24 attacks with 11 kills. WSU hit .235.

Washington carried the momentum from the second set into the third, climbing to an insurmountable lead. The Huskies took the set 25-15, and repeated with only 1 attack error and hit .444 in the set. WSU hit .200 in this set.

"We made way too many mistakes in that first set and still almost won it. They scored 29 points but 16 of those were from our errors and that is what we are trying to resolve," Cougar Head Coach Andrew Palileo said. "If we compete we can put ourselves in a position to win."

Washington State plays again next weekend when the Cougs travel to the Bay area to take on No. 8 California Oct. 15, and No. 1 Stanford Oct. 16.