Washington State University Athletics
Volleyball Defeats Oregon State 3-1
October 17, 2015 | Volleyball
PULLMAN, Wash. -- The Washington State volleyball team (14-5 overall, 3-4 Pac-12) defeated Oregon State (4-14, 2-6) with set scores of 25-23, 16-25, 25-22, and 25-9, Friday night before a Homecoming crowd of 1,092 in Bohler Gym.
Kyra Holt let the Cougars and the match with 15 kills (.324) while McKenna Woodford added 10 kills. Haley MacDonald had 35 assists, 11 digs and equaled her career-high of seven blocks, best of the match. Claire Martin and Ashley Vander Tuig contributed four blocks each as WSU, the sixth-best blocking team in the nation through Wednesday's action, out-blocked the Beavers 14.5 to nine. Senior Kate Sommer led the match with 27 digs and is now seven digs away from breaking the school record of 1,773 digs by Kelly Hyder (2006-09). Thirteen Cougars saw court action Friday night.
Oregon State's Mary-Kate Marshall led her team with 14 kills and Lila Toner had 10 kills and 12 digs. Darby Reeder and Kayla Ellis combined for another 23 digs. McKenna Hollingsworth had 22 assists. Kory Cheshire led the Beavs with four blocks.
Four Cougars served aces and the Beavers also had four aces but committed 10 service errors compared to WSU's four errors. WSU hit .125 for the match and OSU hit .103.
“This was a very scrappy Oregon State team and they did a really nice job of it,” WSU Head Coach Jen Greeny said. “We struggled a little bit but we were kind of able to get this win by committee: a lot of players came in and contributed. Ashley Vander Tuig came in and did a nice job, Claire Martin and Haley DeSales came in and really contributed. You know that was nice to see and it's nice to have that depth. We served really, really tough in that fourth set and then we were able to get some free balls and some easy balls back that we were able to transition really well. Haley McDonald did a nice job in that fourth set getting the ball spread out to her hitters. (on MacDonald's seven blocks) We look especially to our right side blockers and she is one of those blockers that we need in order to slow down their outside hitters.”
“Honestly I think it was just a team effort. I couldn't raise the energy by myself. I couldn't raise the enthusiasm by myself,” MacDonald said. “We went down to the locker room and we came back up with more of a team effort, playing together and working together and that's all I can ask for. I love blocking. I try to think I can jump and I'm getting that vertical up there but that felt good.
The Cougars play No. 24 Oregon Sunday, Oct. 18 at 1 p.m. in Bohler Gym.
