Honolulu, Hawaii – No. 23 Washington State volleyball was downed by the Toreros of San Diego in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament, by a final score of 3-1.
Set scores from the match were: 21-25, 25-22, 19-25, and 14-25, and in favor of San Diego (25-5).
Washington State (23-10) and the Toreros of San Diego battled early in this opening set, as these two squads were locked up at 4-4 overall. A 6-1 scoring run from USD propelled the Toreros out to the 10-5 advantage, seeing the Cougars take a timeout to regroup. San Diego continued to hold down a lead over WSU through the midway point of the opening period, leading 16-8 overall. The Cougars saw some offensive sparks from both
Jocelyn Urias and
Penny Tusa as the USD lead stood at 21-14. Washington State continued to fight late in set number one, with kills from
Alexcis Lusby, and
Pia Timmer forcing the USD timeout at 24-20. The Toreros closed out set number one over the Cougs however at 25-21 to take the overall match lead.
Set number two brought the same intensity as the first, as five overall ties occurred leading to a 10-10 score. Washington State shot ahead of San Diego with a 4-1 scoring run, fueled by multiple USD errors, and kills from Lusby and
Magda Jehlářová for the 14-11 lead. WSU held down a late lead of 20-17 after
Hannah Pukis posted a kill of her own to see the Cougs with a bit of momentum. Timmer and Pukis each continued to anchor the WSU attack, each posting kills to push the lead out to 22-19, and see a timeout from the Toreros. The Cougars were able to put away San Diego at 25-22 in set number two, seeing this contest all tied up at 1-1 overall.
The Cougars opened set three with a block party as
Kalyah Williams, Lusby, and Jehlářová all found themselves involved in blocks, leading to a 7-4 advantage. San Diego countered back however with multiple small runs to surge out to a 15-11 lead, and have the Cougs take their first timeout of the set. The Toreros continued to take control in set three, extending their lead out to 18-11 overall, and forcing a second Washington State timeout. The Cougars were able to close the scoring gap a bit with help from kills by Lusby and Tusa, but San Diego finished off the set three win at 25-19.
WSU posted a 3-0 scoring run to begin the fourth set of play, as multiple USD errors and a Pukis service ace saw the Cougs in control early. San Diego answered right back however, posting a 6-1 scoring run to claim the lead at 6-4, and see Washington State use timeout number one of the set. The USD lead continued to grow, as several 3-0 scoring runs put the Toreros lead at 15-9 midway through the fourth period. San Diego continued to pace the final set in this tournament match, as the overall lead increased to 18-10. Washington State and the Toreros traded points down the stretch of this contest, until USD claimed the victory at 25-14.
POST-MATCH QUOTES
Head Coach Jen Greeny
Opening statement: "San Diego is a fantastic team, obviously winning the WCC they showed that all season long. So, they're a team that frustrates other teams definitely defensively and that's kind of what they did tonight. I don't think it was our best match, but a lot of credit goes out to San Diego and just what they did defensively and offensively as well."
On season's expectations: "We were picked eighth I think in the PAC-12. We have 11 both true freshmen and redshirt freshmen on this team and so to compete in the Pac-12 and to do what we did I think is fantastic and it just shows the leadership of Alexis and the other seniors as well. It's really tough to have that many new, inexperienced people and just do what we did, even though the expectations from the outside maybe weren't as high, we were able to fight and get some really good wins this year."
Libero Alexis Dirige
On takeaways from match: "I just took tonight as a good learning experience for the freshman next year. They haven't experienced this long season yet and they've never been to the NCAA Tournament. So, a lot of learning experiences for them and I hope they had a good experience and come back stronger next year in the NCAA Tournament but I'm glad to be here in my senior year and really thankful for my team making it to the NCAA Tournament."
On takeaways from season: "I take away a lot of positives. No one expected this team to make the tournament. No one expected us to do anything in the Pac-12 and we did a lot of good things, especially in the beginning of the year, so that was really exciting and I am just glad we were able to be competitive this year because no one expected it the season could have gone a completely different way and I'm glad that we fought hard enough to make it to where we are here."
Middle blocker Magda Jehlářová
On freshman experience: "I really enjoyed playing by the side of all the girls on my team, especially the seniors because they all gave me so much. Like Alexis mentioned, no one expected us to make it so far with 11 freshmen on the team. But I am just so thankful for our coaches, for our seniors, for everyone because we wouldn't make it without them."
INTO THE TWITTER-VERSE
MATCH NOTES
- Magda Jehlářová led WSU both offensively and defensively tonight, totaling eight kills and eight total blocks.
- Hannah Pukis notched yet another double-double on the year with 31 assists, and 10 digs.
- Alexis Dirige posted 10 digs in the match, increasing her career total to 2,152 which moves her up to sixth all-time in the Pac-12 in career digs.
