Volleyball Defeated by No. 2 Stanford

Saturday, October 21

Stanford, Calif.

7:00 PM

Washington State University

13-9, 2-8Pac-12

Stanford

17-2, 10-0Pac-12

Washington State

Stanford

October 21, 2017 | Volleyball

Box Score Stanford WSU Box Score

By: Washington State Athletic Communications

WHO WHAT WHEN WHERE…
STANFORD, Calif. -- The Washington State volleyball team (13-9 overall, 2-8 in Pac-12) lost 25-22, 25-18, 25-14 to the defending national champions, No. 2 Stanford (17-2, 10-0), Saturday night at Maples Pavilion.

Taylor Mims led the Cougars with 18 kills (.286) and had five digs, one block and WSU's lone ace. Casey Schoenlein added eight kills and one block. Penny Tusa had 13 assists and led the Cougars with nine digs. Ashley Brown had 12 assists. Claire Martin and Ella Lajos were two of three players with four blocks in the match. Martin's blocks moves her into sixth place on the WSU all-time career block assists list with 339.

The Cougars came out ready to play and battled the Cardinal to 13 tie scores and six lead changes in the opening set.

Stanford had 42 kills on the night and hit .299 while WSU had 33 kills and were held to a .137 team hitting percentage. Stanford served six aces to WSU's one but both squads committed six service errors. The Cardinal barely edged the Cougs in digs, 38-37, and is only the second team this season to out-block WSU, 8.0 to 6.5.

WHY & HOW...
WSU Head Coach Jen Greeny said, "I think we served pretty tough that first set, we blocked okay, our defense was good but Taylor Mims was really good in that first set. I thought we were doing a good job and then they picked up their serving and our passing fell off the table. It's hard to run much of an offense with the passing numbers that we had tonight bur Stanford is an unbelievable team; they have a lot of skills so credit to them but we have to be able to do more with those not great passes."

On what Coach Greeny takes away from the first half of the Pac-12 season she said, "We have played everybody but Arizona State and I think this team is learning we have to be more consistent and not let those silly errors and silly mistakes affect us. We can be right there with all of these teams if we clean up those things. It is hard when you have injuries and people are playing different positions but that's what you have to do; you have to step up and find a good combination that works. Maybe it's back to the drawing board a bit and putting some other people in different positions so we'll see what happens in the second half of the Pac-12 season."

Cougars score four in a row on this Mims SLAM. Lead Cards 15-13 in S1. #GoCougs #RiseAgain pic.twitter.com/nGGloz2et4
— Cougar Volleyball (@wsuvolleyball) October 22, 2017

Jocelyn Urias joins in with WSU's sixth straight point in S1, Lead No. 2 Stanford 17-13. #GoCougs #RiseAgain pic.twitter.com/PCWUH9p4DH
— Cougar Volleyball (@wsuvolleyball) October 22, 2017

Martin, Lajos, Schoenlein put up the WALL for a 21-20 lead. #GoCougs pic.twitter.com/CJFMMlTCDv
— Cougar Volleyball (@wsuvolleyball) October 22, 2017

NOTES…

WSU has an 8-1 record in three-set matches; this was the first sweep of WSU this year (22 matches played).
Junior Claire Martin is gaining on her coach's career block assists tally; Martin's 339 is sixth and Jennifer Stinson (Greeny) is fourth on the all-time list with 360.
Attendance: 3,651

MARK YOUR CALENDAR…
Washington State (13-9 overall, 2-8 in Pac-12) returns to Bohler Gym to host No. 13 UCLA (13-6, 6-4) Fri., Oct. 27 at 8 p.m., and No. 19 USC (14-6, 6-3 pending 10/22 vs No. 12 Utah).