Volleyball Sweeps Colorado for 20th Win of Season

Sunday, November 20

Boulder, Colo.

11:00 AM

Washington State University

20-10,10-8Pac-12

Colorado

13-15, 5-13Pac-12

Washington State

Colorado

November 20, 2016 | Volleyball

Box Score WSU at Colorado Box Score

By: Washington State Athletic Communications

BOULDER, Colo. -- Another strong blocking performance by the nation-leading Washington State volleyball team propelled the Cougars (20-10 overall, 10-8 in Pac-12) to 25-23, 25-20, 25-14 defeat of Colorado (13-15, 5-13) Sunday afternoon at the Coors Event Center. This was the first WSU win over Colorado at Boulder in the six times the schools have met.

The 20 wins season and 10 wins in conference action are the best records for sixth-year Head Coach Jen Greeny at WSU, and the most season and conference wins for the WSU program since 2002. WSU is tied with USC for sixth-place in the conference standing going into the final week of Pac-12 action.

Kyra Holt led the match with nine kills and had five digs, two blocks and an ace. McKenna Woodford added eight kills and two blocks. Taylor Mims and Casey Schoenlein each contributed seven kills with Schoenlein hitting an outstanding .545 for the match. Mims led the match with eight blocks including three solos while Schoenlein had five blocks. Claire Martin had five kills, hit .556 and had four blocks. Alexis Dirige had nine digs and served three aces. Nicole Rigoni and Haley MacDonald combined for 34 assists.

Colorado's leaders included Alexa Smith with eight kills, Stephanie Shadley with seven kills, Naghede Abu with three blocks, Cierra Simpson with 12 digs and Kiara McKibben and Marie Zimmerman combined for 23 assists.

WSU, the Pac-12 leader in opponent hitting, held the Buffaloes to a .051 hitting percentage while the Cougars hit 245 for the match. The Cougars tallied 13 blocks, seven coming in the third set, while the Buffs had a total of five blocks. WSU out-hit the Colorado 41 to 28 but were edged by the home squad in digs, 28 to 36. WSU served five aces in the one hour and 36-minutes contest.

"I'm really proud of our team and what they did today. I think our right side blockers did a tremendous job and Taylor Mims too," WSU Head Coach Jen Greeny said. "I think we started pretty well and got the lead and then for whatever reason we'd get stuck in a rotation and let them back into it. But we did a nice job of holding them off, especially that first set and it's always important to get the first set to put pressure on the other team. We settled in and got our timing right and especially in that third set clamped down on their hitters."

WSU returns home for the final Pac-12 contests of this season, hosting USC (18-11, 10-8) Wed., Nov. 23 in a 7 p.m. match in Bohler Gym. The Cougars host No. 8 Washington (24-4, 14-4 *pending 11/23 vs. No. 9 UCLA) Sat., Nov. 26 at 2 p.m. at Bohler Gym in a match to be televised by the Pac-12 Network.