Newcomers Bring Height, Depth, Talent to 2015 Cougar Volleyball Team
WSU VOLLEYBALL FOUND SUCCESS IN 2015
The Washington State University volleyball team, with one lone senior and eight freshmen, reached an overall record of 16-16, and 5-15 in the Pac-12 Conference for ninth place...Cougars tallied a win over a top-five nationally-ranked team and took three top-15 teams to five-set matches...WSU was second-best in Pac-12 in blocks, third in aces...this is a program on the rise.
COUGAR COACHING STAFF
Jen Stinson Greeny completed her fifth season as WSU's head coach (69-92 at WSU, 5 years; 181-116 in career, 9 years)...assistant coaches Burdette Greeny (fifth year) and Shannon Hunt (third year)...all coaches are former WSU student-athletes...volunteer coach James Dorr (first year)...Katie Hinrichs is coordinator of operations (fifth year).
HOLT AND WOODFORD TABBED FOR 2015 PAC-12 HONORS
Kyra Holt was selected to the All-Pac-12 volleyball team and McKenna Woodford was voted onto the Pac-12 All-Freshman team. “We are very proud of both Kyra and McKenna,” Head Coach Jen Greeny said. “They both carried a heavy load for our team this year and both worked extremely hard all season.” Holt, a 6-1 junior OH from Hercules, Calif., led WSU with 3.91 kps, sixth-best in Pac-12 and 62nd-best in NCAA, 4.51 pps is seventh-best in Pac-12 and 52nd in NCAA, and 0.32 aces per set (35 aces) is fourth-best in Pac-12. Woodford, a 6-4 OH from Chandler, Ariz., was second on team with 3.16 kps and 3.74 pps, and her 0.23 service aces per set is ninth-best in Pac-12.
NOTEABLE WSU ACCOMPLISHMENTS:
> WSU is one of only 15 programs nationally to have at least two Top 25 Prepvolleyball.com (2013 - 14th, 2015 - 21st) and one honorable mention recruiting class ranking (2014) the last three years.
> McKenna Woodford two-time Pac-12 Freshman of the Week
> Cougars won three of the four non-conference tournaments in 2015 with MVP awards going to McKenna Woodford (Lone Star Showdown) and Kyra Holt (Cougar Challenge and Idaho Volleyball Classic).
SOMMER CLAIMS WSU CAREER DIGS RECORD
Kate Sommer became the WSU career digs record-holder Oct. 18, 2015, when she surpassed Kelly Hyder's 1,773 career digs, set from 2006-2009...Sommer is the lone senior on the Cougars 2015 squad...Sommer, from Pacific Palisades, Calif., also passed one of her coaches, WSU assistant Shannon Wyckoff Hunt, who tallied 1,254 digs from 1994-97 as an all-round position player due to the libero position coming into NCAA play in 1999...Sommer accumulated 1,954 digs in her career.