LUBBOCK, Texas --A trio of freshmen led the Washington State volleyball team (10-1) Friday night to a 25-22, 25-14, 25-18 win over Texas Tech (10-3) at the Red Raiders' Lone Star Showdown in Lubbock.
WSU freshman McKenna Woodford (Chandler, Ariz.) led match with a career-high 17 kills, hit .538, had four blocks and five digs. Fellow freshmen Taylor Mims (Billings, Mont.) and Claire Martin (Bremerton, Wash.) combined for 11 kills while Mims led the match with six blocks and Martin added five blocks. Kyra Holt contributed nine kills and four blocks. Haley MacDonald had 34 assists, four blocks and six digs. Kate Sommer led the match with 16 digs while Tani Stephens had a pair of aces.
“I talked with Kate (Sommer) after the first match today and I decided to be extremely aggressive on every single ball,” Woodford said. “If I were to go down, I would go down swinging. I also made a point to get excited for every single point, especially when the team did something well that we've really been working on in practice. The composure, energy and support my team gave me tonight is the reason why I was successful.”
Texas Tech was led the Jenna Allen's 13 kills and 12 digs, Marguerite Grubb's 28 assists, and Reyn Akiu and Carlie Foust each had 11 digs.
WSU out-blocked TTU 14.5 to five, and the Cougars hit .283 for the match and held the Red Raiders to a .112 hitting percentage.
The first set was a see-saw battle with WSU coming from behind to knot the opener at 12 and then pull ahead and not look back. The 9-1 run and Cougars hitting .325 led to the 25-22 win. WSU took an early lead in the second set and again ran the table with Woodford's hitting leading the way to a 25-14 win. TTU substituted generously in the third set, looking for a combination to stem the Cougars, and led the set after seven consecutive points. WSU countered with five straight points for the late lead and eventual 25-18 win.
“Even though it doesn't show on the stat sheet with service aces, we served extremely well and we were taking them really out of their offense. I was a bit worried about them running their middles and they couldn't do that tonight because our serving was so tough,” Cougar Head Coach Jen Greeny said. ”I'm really proud of the way we performed both from the service line and it really made it a lot easier to set up our block.”
WSU concludes the Lone Star Showdown and the 2015 non-conference preseason with a Sat., Sept. 19, match versus Portland State (4-7) set for 9 a.m. PT.