LOS ANGELES, Calif. (October 31, 2024) – Washington State Volleyball opened its weekend against the top two teams in the WCC standings with a 3-0 loss to LMU Thursday night.

The Cougars (12-7, 7-3 WCC) were led on offense by Sage Brustad with eight kills, an ace, two blocks and seven digs.

Breccan Scheck recorded six kills along with four blocks, while Katy Ryan also had six kills to go with a block.

Italia Bernal tallied 26 assists, three blocks, five digs and a kill. Emma Barbero added 10 digs.

Lucie Blažková led the defense with five total blocks while adding four kills and four digs.

Taryn Vrieling had three kills to go with an ace, an assist and a dig, and Weronika Wojdyla had a kill and a block.

LMU took an early lead, and although a 4-1 run with a block assist from Blažková and Ryan, a Bernal kill, and aces from Walz and Vrieling drew WSU back to within two midway through the first set, the Lions went on to win, 25-15.

The Cougs moved out to a 7-3 lead early in set two behind kills from Brustad, Blažková and Vrieling. LMU scored five straight from there to take an 8-7 lead, but WSU kept fighting as a Bernal and Blažková block along with another Brustad kill made it a 9-8 Cougar lead. After things went back-and-forth for a while, LMU eventually sat on a 20-17 lead before a 4-0 spurt from WSU with a Bernal kill and blocks from Scheck gave WSU a late 21-20 lead. LMU had one final run in them, though, finishing on a 5-1 run to win the second set 25-22.

A Brustad ace and kills from Ryan and Scheck put WSU ahead 4-3 early in set three in what was another tight battle that saw eight ties. The score locked at 9-all on a Brustad kill, and 10-all on a Ryan kill before LMU began pulling away. The Cougs would work back to within one, 15-14 on another kill from Ryan, but a pair of 4-0 spurts from LMU down the stretch sealed the 25-17 set win, and 3-0 match win for the Lions.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
Katy Ryan
•    Finished with 6.5 points to put career total at 1,260, good for 10th all-time at WSU.
•    Ryan tallied six kills to reach 1,084 for her career and is now 169 away from the WSU all-time top-10 list.
•    Ryan holds a career attack percentage of .277 (1084-393-2496), good for sixth in program history.
•    She has played in 118 career matches, 11 away from entering the WSU all-time top-10 list.
•    Ryan is now at 437 career sets played, 31 from entering the WSU all-time top-10 list and 63 away from 500.

NOTES
•    Blažková has 26 solo blocks this season, six away from entering the single-season Top-10 at WSU.
•    Brustad has 34 service aces this season, eight away from the WSU single-season Top-10.

UP NEXT
The Cougars continue their road trip at Pepperdine on Saturday, November 2 at 12 p.m. The match will be broadcast live on ESPN+.

FOLLOW US
For all the latest WSU volleyball news, photos and videos, like the team on Facebook (facebook.com/WSUCougarVB), or follow on Twitter (@WSUCougarVB) and Instagram (@wsucougarvb).