Washington State University Athletics
Volleyball Loses Five-set Heartbreaker at Colorado
November 26, 2015 | Volleyball
BOULDER, Colo. --The Washington State volleyball team (16-15 overall, 5-14 Pac-12) lost a five-set match to Colorado (18-13 overall, 10-9 Pac-12) at the Coors Event Center Wednesday afternoon. Colorado, receiving votes in the AVCA Top 25 poll, came back to take the match 19-25, 25-13, 25-20, 19-25, and 18-16.
WSU's Kyra Holt had her 13th double-double of the season with 15 kills and 11 digs, and led the team with three aces and contributed six blocks. Haley MacDonald had 42 assists, 13 digs and six blocks. McKenna Woodford added 13 kills, 12 digs, and two aces. Ella Lajos had nine kills and five blocks. Claire Martin had a match-high seven blocks. Casey Schoenlein had six kills and two blocks while Ashley Vander Tuig contributed four blocks. Kate Sommer had nine digs.
Colorado was led by Alexa Austin's 24 kills and five blocks. Gabby Simpson had 19 kills, hit .385, and Anna Pfefferle added 14 kills, hit .522, had four blocks and two aces. Naghede Abu and Nicole Edelman each had five blocks. Cierra Simpson led the match with 24 digs with Edelman adding 13 digs.
The Cougars out-blocked the Buffs 16 to 12.5 but the home team had 71 kills to the visitors' 53. Colorado hit .241 for the match and held WSU to .197 hitting percentage.
There was strong blocking from Martin and Holt and kills from MacDonald and Woodford as WSU scored five consecutive points to close out the first set win, 25-19. The Buffaloes came out firing on all cylinders, took the immediate lead and distanced themselves taking the 25-13 second set win. In the third set, WSU went on a 6-1 run, trailed 17-13, and then closed the gap again to four at 24-20 but CU prevailed 25-20. The Cougars had a comfortable 17-12 mid-set lead in fourth and the Buffs battled back but WSU kept the advantage and took the 25-19 win to tie up the sets at two each. The fifth set had 10 tie scores and six lead changes. WSU was down 8-3 early and behind the strong blocking, scored five straight points to tie at eight. It was a see-saw battle with teams trading for set points after14 points each. WSU went ahead 16-15 on a Woodford slam. But three consecutive kills by Austin gave the Buffaloes the 18-16 win and the 3-2 match victory.
“This was a tough loss. I really liked the way we fought back in the fourth but then we got down right away in the fifth and you can't put yourself in that kind of hole. It came down to it and we couldn't make some plays at the end. Some crucial errors at really important times and that's what we have to get better at,” WSU Head Coach Jen Greeny said. “In the fourth and fifth Claire Martin did a really nice job of coming back in: we went offense, defense with her and Ella, and that's what got us back in it in the fifth set. Definitely some passing breakdowns especially in the second and third sets. It was good to see us change that and we passed much better later on. Consistency still is something we need to get better at.”
WSU travels to Seattle to take on No. 2 Washington (26-2 overall, 16-2 Pac-12 pending 11/25 vs. Utah) Saturday, Nov. 28, at 8 p.m. in a match to be broadcast on the Pac-12 Networks.
