BERKELEY, Calif. – Washington State volleyball went five sets on the road with the No. 21 ranked California Golden Bears, but unfortunately was downed 3-2 Saturday afternoon.
Set scores from the match were: 23-25, 25-22, 19-25, 25-18, and 4-15 in favor of Cal (11-1, 1-1 Pac-12).
Washington State (12-2, 1-1 Pac-12) began this match on fire, pushing the early lead out to 7-2 after an
Alexis Dirige ace to force the No. 21 California Golden Bears to use a timeout. Cal answered back however with a 13-0 run, and posted a lead at 19-12 over WSU. The Cougars continued to battle late into this opening set, creating a 6-2 run, fueled by
Jocelyn Urias and
Penny Tusa to trail the Golden Bears by only two points. California was able to go point-for-point with Washington State with a lead in the set to win it at 25-23.
The Cougars once again jumped ahead early, as an 8-4 advantage saw WSU in control once again to begin a set. California began to chip away at that lead and after eight total ties, the set score settled at 20-20. Urias began to take over at this point, recording back-to-back kills, a solo block, and a block assist alongside
Ashley Brown to go up 23-20 against Cal.
Pia Timmer put set two away at 25-22 with a kill that saw this contest evened up overall.
Set number three was a game of scoring runs between these two programs, beginning with California holdnig an 11-7 advantage to start. Kills from
Alexcis Lusby and Jocelyn, along with multiple Golden Bear errors, gave the Cougars an opening to tie up the set at 13-13. Cal rattled off four unanswered points to reclaim the lead at 19-16 and would not falter during the remainder of this set. The Golden Bears added yet another 4-0 run late in the set, to take a match lead at 2-1 with the 25-19 set win.
Momentum began swinging back in the favor of the Cougars in set four, as just about everyone on the floor provided some offensive spark.
Magda Jehlarova, Lusby, Timmer, and Urias all recorded kills to surge ahead to a 10-4 lead. WSU continued to dominate the fourth game in this Pac-12 match with a 6-1 scoring run anchored by another Dirige ace, and kills once again from Magda, Lusby, Tusa, and Urias. The Cougars capped off this set victory with a pair of kills from
Gabbie Heller, to see this contest head to a fifth set after the 25-18 WSU win.
California was all over Washington State in set five, and the Cougars could not find an answer to counter with. WSU recorded four points, three of which included kills from
Hannah Pukis, Tusa, and Jehlarova. The Golden Bears finished the match off with the 15-4 set five win, and took the match at 3-2 overall as well.
STAT OF THE MATCH
Jocelyn Urias tied her career-high in kills during this contest, leading the Cougars with 18 total on the day. Urias also posted five blocks, and a hitting percentage of .405 as well.
INTO THE TWITTER-VERSE
MATCH NOTES
- Ashley Brown led WSU in total assists with 36 overall, and added nine digs, and one block to her stat line as well.
- Penny Tusa recorded double digit kills with 10 total today, along with one ace, and seven digs.
- Magda Jehlarova continued to turn in solid blocking performances as she totaled six in the match, and provided five kills as well.
- WSU is back in action next, Friday, Oct. 4, on the road to Los Angeles to take on the Bruins of UCLA at 6 p.m.
