WHO WHAT WHEN WHERE…
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah -- The Washington State volleyball team (14-12 overall, 3-11 in Pac-12), playing in its fourth match in seven days, struggled offensively in the 25-18, 25-11, 25-18 loss to No. 15 Utah (18-6, 9-4) Thursday night at the Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City.
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Taylor Mims and
Casey Schoenlein led the Cougars with seven kills each and Mims led the team with 10 digs.
Ella Lajos and
Jocelyn Urias each added four kills while
Claire Martin had three kills and led the team with three blocks.
Ashley Brown had 14 assists and served an ace as did Mims and Urias.
Alexis Dirige and
Olivia Coale contributed six digs each.
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WSU had 29 kills with 22 errors in 108 attacks for a .065 team hitting percentage. Utah had 44 kills and hit .292. The Utes led the Cougars in digs, 52 to 40, and blocks, 6.0 to 4.0, while both teams served three aces.
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WHY & HOW...
WSU Head Coach Jen Greeny said, "Again way too many hitting errors and way too many unforced errors in general. We are trying to find something that works and we still are searching for that. Back to the drawing board. We have to be better offensively and our hitters just need to do a better job of keeping the ball on the court.
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"We were doing an okay job, especially in that first set, of holding them to under 200 (hitting percentage) but if your offense isn't working as well then it's hard to win ball games. Definitely nothing was working in that second set; they were serving really well and our passing broke down.
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"We talk about not being streaky and not letting the other team have any runs. A run of one or two points is all they should get but it's been runs of four and five and six points in a row and there's not a lot we can do as a coaching staff when that's happening. We can only try to break the momentum so much. We have to find a way to sideout and then score some points."
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On the tight travel schedule in the past seven days Greeny said, "It will be nice to get back in the gym and actually practice. I think we need that. The skills have definitely broken down right now. We need to get back to the basics and volleyball fundamentals."
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NOTES…
- Twelve Cougars saw action in the match at No. 15 Utah.
- Junior Claire Martin has 386 total blocks, tied at No. 6 with Holly Harris (1999-02) on the WSU all-time career list. Martin's 354 block assists is fifth-best in Cougars career records and only six away from her Head Coach Jen Stinson Greeny's 360 tallied in 1995-98.
- Attendance: 1,639
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MARK YOUR CALENDAR…
Washington State (14-12 overall, 3-11 in Pac-12) returns to Bohler Gym for a match against California Friday, Nov. 10 and against No. 2 Stanford Saturday, Nov. 11. Both contests begin at 7 p.m.
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