Sept. 4, 2010
Box Score
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. -- The Washington State Cougars volleyball team lost to UC Santa Barbara in set scores of 25-15, 25-22, 18-25, and 25-21, in the Saturday morning match of the University of San Francisco PowerAde Asics Challenge tournament at War Memorial Gym in San Francisco.
Meagan Ganzer had a career-high 25 kills to lead Washington State (2-3). Brittany Tillman added 10 kills and led the team with three blocks. Oceana Bush had 25 digs while freshman Jordan Levenseller moved into the libero spot for the last two sets, had a career-high two aces and 15 digs. Setter Alex Diemer had a career-high 42 assists.
UC Santa Barbara (3-2) was led by Charlene DeHoog's 17 kills and 15 digs, while Stacey Schmidt and Mimi Cuttrell combined for another 23 kills and six blocks. Setter Dana Vargas had 40 assists and 14 digs. Schmidt led the Gauchos with three aces.
"A loss is never fun to go through but we have to continue to try and improve," WSU Head Coach Andrew Palileo said. "We are really struggling with our setting and our passing. Alex is still learning how to run a team and learning how to have her teammates play for her. She needs to learn how to push the buttons to make them play. Also, we were serving too many easy balls over the net so we did better in the last sets and got them out of their system a little more."
The UCSB squad dominated the first set, hitting .429 as a team and grabbing the 25-15 win. The second set was another struggle for the Cougars as they fell to the Gauchos 25-22.
The Cougars came to life in the third set, as Bush moved to the front row in place of Vanessa Murray, and Levenseller played libero. WSU played more consistently in this set, hitting .364 and holding UCSB to a .184 hitting percentage.
WSU made a valiant effort to come back from a nine-point deficit in the fourth set with a run of six-consecutive points was it not enough to stem the Gaucho tide. UCSB takes the fourth set 25-21 and the match.
Washington State wraps up the tournament against host USF at 7 p.m. tonight.
