RADFORD, Va. -- The Washington State volleyball team had some excellent play from returnees and newcomers alike Friday afternoon, but dropped its season-opening match to the host school at the Radford Highlander Invitational tournament held at the Dedmon Center. The set scores were 25-19, 24-26, 26-24, and 25-22.

Junior outside hitter Kyra Holt led the Cougars with 21 kills (.213), three aces, nine digs and five blocks. Junior outside hitter Hailey Bethune added 11 kills (.226) and three blocks. Freshman defensive specialist Olivia Coale led the match with four aces. Freshman Claire Martin led the team with six blocks and added four kills. Freshmen Haley DeSales and Taylor Mims added four kills each. Senior Kate Sommer had 28 digs in the match and is now the second Cougar in history to surpass 1500 digs in a career with 1,503 digs. Haley MacDonald had 43 assists. Six of WSU's eight freshmen saw action in this match.

Radford leader were Maddie Palmer with 28 kills (.183) and 12 digs, Megan Short's 14 kills (.444), Taylor Bouras with six blocks and Haley Kleespies with 49 assists. The Highlanders hit .242 and held the Cougars to a .162 hitting percentage.

“This match gave us a lot of things to work on,” WSU Head Coach Jen Greeny said. “We are still trying to get our young middles into the groove. There were some bright points too, from Hailey Bethune and Kyra Holt doing their jobs pretty well. There were far too many unforced errors and we definitely need to clean that up. Olivia Coale has definitely been carving it up (serving) in practice. We needed to get her on the court today and bring us some light from the service line and she certainly did that. Claire Martin did a good job at the net today but we need to get more people going offensively.”

WSU continues play at the Radford Highlander Invitational later today, taking on Elon University in a 4 p.m. PT match which is the first match of the year for the Phoenix.