PULLMAN, Wash. -- Junior Kyra Holt reached a milestone of 1,000 career kills Saturday night and led the Washington State volleyball team (8-1) to the Cougar Challenge tournament title with a 3-1 win over Utah Valley University (4-6) in Bohler Gym.
After dropping the first set, 26-24, the Cougars rallied back to win the next three with scores of 25-16, 25-13, and 25-11.
Holt, from Hercules, Calif., reached her 1,000th kill in the second set and went on to lead the match with 20 kills while hitting .409. Her career total is now 1,012, surpassing her head coach, Jen Greeny's career total of 1,006 kills (1995-98), and closing in on WSU's assistant coach, Shannon Hunt's 1,051 kills (1994-97) which is 10th-best on the school's all-time records.
“This (milestone) means everything to me and to reach my 1,000th kill in Bohler Gym in front of all of our friends means the world to me,” Holt said. “Our team is humble and we want to learn every single time we come into the gym. We are humble which makes everybody want to get better.”
“This is a great milestone for Kyra, surpassing 1,000 kills,” WSU Head Coach Jen Greeny said. “She's off to a great start this season. Doing a lot of things well: serving, blocking, playing great defense. Not only with the kills, but she's having great all-around games.”
Against UVU, Holt also had a match-high four service aces, and six digs and one block. She was named tournament MVP. Junior setter Haley MacDonald and freshman middle blocker Taylor Mims were also tabbed to the all-tournament team. Saturday night MacDonald, from Bothell, Wash., had 44 assists, three aces, three blocks and three kills. Mims, from Billings, Mont., had 11 kills and hit .381. Fellow freshmen, McKenna Woodford added 10 kills and nine digs while Claire Martin had seven blocks. Kate Sommer and Tani Stephens combined for 28 digs.
Utah Valley was led by all-tournament selections Lauren Bakker (14 kills, .600 hpct, five blocks) and Sierra Starley (30 assists, six digs, two blocks). Kiahna Steiner added seven blocks, and Lindsey Tagge led the match with 16 digs.
WSU hit .283 for the match and held Utah Valley to a .110 match hitting percentage. The Cougars dominated the Wolverines in both the second and third sets defensively as UVU had back-to-back .000 hitting percentages.
“Utah Valley did some really great things but we responded and that's what I really liked,” Greeny said. “We weren't hitting exceptionally well in that first set but our hitters dug themselves out of that and ended up having a pretty good night; Kyra Holt especially. After that first set our defense picked up, our blocking and our passing was much better so I really liked how we came back after losing that first set, shift gears and take three straight after that.”
In a Cougar Challenge match earlier this evening, Ball State (5-5) defeated Morehead State (2-8) with scores of 22-25, 25-20, 28-26 and 25-19.
Also named to the Cougar Challenge all-tournament team were Ellie Dunn from Ball State, and Merideth Jewell from Morehead State.
Washington State's next competition will be Sept. 18-19 in Lubbock, Texas at the Texas Tech Lone Star Showdown, taking on Northwestern State, Texas Tech, and Portland State.