Santa Clara, Calif. (September 26, 2024) – Washington State Volleyball opened its inaugural West Coast Conference slate with a 3-1 win over Santa Clara Thursday night.
The Cougars (6-4, 1-0 WCC) hit a season-best .313 as a team compared to Santa Clara's .218.
Sage Brustad led the way on offense with 19 kills and five service aces, totaling 24 points while hitting .364.
Breccan Scheck finished with a career-high 10 kills with two blocks, hitting .529 on the night.
Lucie Blažková tallied seven kills, two service aces, six blocks and seven digs.
Italia Bernal had 38 assists to go with three kills, eight digs, an ace, and a career-high three blocks.
Emma Barbero added 17 digs and seven assists, while
Weronika Wojdyla had seven kills and three blocks.
Katy Ryan totaled eight kills and
Logann Golden finished with nine digs.
WSU took an early 5-1 lead in the opening set behind a couple of Ryan kills and a Barbero ace. Santa Clara drew back to within one 7-6, but then kills from Brustad, Scheck and Ryan helped the Cougs put together a 7-2 run and extend to a 14-8 advantage. Down the stretch, WSU outscored the Broncos 11-2 with the help of three blocks and two kills from Blažková to take the set 25-12.
Santa Clara opened set two with a slight lead, but the Cougs kept within two points before moving ahead 11-10 after a block from Ryan and Scheck evened the set up at 10-all. But a 12-1 run from the Broncos put them ahead for good as they took set two 25-18.
The Cougs went back to starting with a lead in set three, and created some separation with a kill and an ace from Blažková before a Brustad kill put them up 10-5. Santa Clara came back, though, evening the score at 11-all before taking its first lead of the set, 15-14. Then back-to-back points from Wojdyla with a kill and an ace put the Cougars back ahead 17-16 before a Brustad kill a couple points later stretched the lead to 19-17, forcing a SCU timeout. That turned into a 10-3 run the rest of the way as WSU won the set 25-19 and took a 2-1 set lead.
Momentum carried into set four for WSU as four points from Brustad led to a quick 5-1 lead. Five more kills and a Blažková ace stretched the lead to 12-6, but Santa Clara didn't let up, rallying for a 6-1 run to claw back and even the score at 15-15. SCU would hold an 18-17 lead, but eventually Brustad's seventh point and fifth kill of the set put WSU back in front 19-18. From there, kills from Barbero and Brustad and a Bernal ace led to match point, where a final kill from Brustad sealed the set 25-21, and the match, 3-1.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
Katy Ryan
- Finished with 8.5 points to put career total at 1,128, good for 10th all-time at WSU.
- Ryan tallied eight kills to put her career total at 968, 32 away from 1,000 and 285 away from the WSU All-time top-10 list.
- Ryan holds a career attack percentage of .274 (968-358-2228), good for sixth-best in program history.
- She has played in 109 career matches, 20 away from entering the WSU all-time top-10 list.
- Ryan is now at 401 career sets played, 67 from entering the WSU all-time top-10 list and 99 away from 500.
NOTES
- As a team, recorded a season-high hitting percentage of .313, including a .500 clip in the first set
- Emma Barbero recorded her first career kill in the fourth set
- This was Lucie Blažková's fourth game this season with 6+ blocks, all coming with 7+ kills
UP NEXT
The Cougars return to Pullman for their first home WCC match, hosting San Diego on Saturday, Sept. 28. The game will be broadcast live on ESPN+ at 12 p.m. noon.
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