WHO WHAT WHEN WHERE…
EUGENE, Ore. -- A pair of Cougars had career days and led the Washington State volleyball team (16-13 overall, 5-12 in Pac-12) to a 25-19, 25-22, 20-25, 29-27 win over No. 20 Oregon (16-9, 9-8) in a Friday afternoon match at Matthew Knight Arena in Eugene.
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This was sweet revenge for the Cougars who had lost a five-set match to then-No. 15 Oregon in Pullman with the fifth set a 15-13 score.
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Junior
Taylor Mims led the match with a career-high 26 kills, hit .292, and contributed one ace, six digs and three blocks. Sophomore setter
Ashley Brown had a match-high and career-high 48 assists, and career-bests with six kills (.545) and three blocks.
Ella Lajos had nine kills (.533) and led the match with five blocks.
Jocelyn Urias added eight kills, three blocks and one ace.
Claire Martin had six kills and three blocks and
Savanah Smith had a career-high six kills.
Alexis Dirige led the match with 22 digs while
Olivia Coale added 13 digs. Brown and Coale each had one ace.
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The Cougars hit .329, the second-highest hitting percentage in this year's conference matches, and Oregon hit .269. The Ducks edged WSU in kills, 65 to 61, but the Cougars claimed the advantage in digs, 65 to 61, and blocks, 9.0 to 7.0.
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WHY & HOW...
WSU Head Coach Jen Greeny said, "I'm so proud of this team for putting it together and gutting it out. I thought we played extremely well offensively. And
Taylor Mims, wow, what an afternoon. But there were contributions from every single person. Taylor and
Ashley Brown did a really nice job. We were able to move Taylor around quite a bit, get her in her more natural place in the middle on a few of those attempts. I think Taylor attacked probably the best out of the back row that I've seen in quite some time. A great job by Taylor. Really proud of her effort. And Ashley, even when she wasn't playing in the front row at all, she did really well dumping two-handed. Her court-sense is really good seeing those openings. She did an exceptional job not only delivering the ball, mixing up her sets and offensively as well.
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"I though Savanah did a really nice job coming in; took care of the ball and placed it really well after not having played on the outside for quite some time. Ella and Jocelyn really took over running the slide and it worked really well tonight."
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Junior outside hitter Taylor Mims said, "The way we played tonight was very relaxed and calm. I? thought everyone was on the same page and had a tenacious attitude. I? thought Claire stepped up and was hitting shots she normally wouldn't hit. All together I? thought everyone was great. Hitting my career high was sweet and all but I? couldn't do it without this team. They really look up to me and push me to do my best and they do that every day!"
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NOTES…
- This WSU win breaks a 22-match streak of losses to Oregon going back to 2005.
- The epic fourth set saw the Cougars tallying six unanswered points to take a 19-14 lead. WSU players and coaches rushed the floor celebrating a 25-23 set win when a challenge review reversed the hitting error call and the set was tied at 24. The Ducks had two set points but WSU prevailed with a 29-27 win. There were 14 tie scores in this set and five lead changes.
- Taylor Mims' 72 attack attempts is the second-best in a four-set match in WSU history.
- Taylor Mims became the 26th player in school history to reach 800 kills in a career (804). Mims' 314 career block assists is 10th-best in school records while teammate Claire Martin's 364 is fourth-best.
- With a current NCAA RPI of 43, WSU is looking to accumulate wins in the final three matches of the season and make a second-consecutive at-large trip to the NCAA tournament.
- Attendance: 1,234
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MARK YOUR CALENDAR…
Washington State (16-13 overall, 5-12 in Pac-12) plays at Oregon State (19-9, 9-7 pending 11/17 vs. No. 10 Washington) Sun., Nov. 19, at 3 p.m. in Corvallis. The match will be televised on the Pac-12 Network.
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