MOSCOW, Idaho -- Kyra Holt had a double-double and led the Washington State volleyball team (3-1) to a 25-19, 25-19, 25-14 win over UC Irvine (1-3) Friday evening at the Idaho Volleyball Classic tournament at Memorial Gym in Moscow.
Holt, a junior from Hercules, Calif., led the match with 14 kills and 13 digs, hit .387 and landed two aces. Freshman Claire Martin had seven kills, hit .385 and led the match with six blocks. Hailey Bethune added seven kills with a .375 hitting percentage and had two blocks. Haley MacDonald put up 37 assists while Kate Sommer had 15 digs and three aces.
The Anteaters were led by six kills from both Ella Rosenfeld (.500) and Victoria Dennis. Luna Tsujimoto had 12 digs and Shelley Anderson had 19 assists. Rosenfeld also contributed two blocks.
WSU hit .276 for the match and held UCI to a .075 hitting percentage. The Cougars had seven aces to none for the Anteaters, and WSU led in team blocks, seven to four.
WSU scored seven unanswered points to end the first set, including back-to-back aces from Sommer, for the 25-19 win. The Cougars won the second set 25-19, hitting .379 and held UCI to a .069 hitting percentage. The third set was a runaway for WSU as UCI made changes at both the libero and setter positions in order to change the temp of the match.
“I'm really proud of the team and how they came out this first match. I think there was so much improvement from last week as a team,” Cougar Head Coach Jen Greeny said. “This UCI team is really good and they run a fast offense and I think our young blockers handled that pretty well. Claire Martin and Kyra Holt played a fantastic match today. I was proud of the overall team effort.”
Saturday, Sept. 5, Washington State plays Seattle U at 10 a.m. and host Idaho at 7 p.m.