GDEN, Utah -- The Washington State volleyball team remained undefeated in seven matches after a 25-20, 25-17, 25-22 win over Weber State Monday evening at Swenson Gymnasium. This is the best start of a season for WSU since 2002 when the Cougars started the season 11-0, and advanced to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Championship tournament.
WSU sophomore outside hitter Meagan Ganzer led the team with 11 kills (.308) and four blocks while senior middle blocker Cassie Robbins added 10 kills, hit .562 and had three blocks. Senior setter Renee Bordelon had 32 assists and nine digs. Freshman libero Oceana Bush led the match with 13 digs and senior outside hitter Jackie Albright added another 10 digs.
Weber State (1-6) was led by Chelsea Bair’s 13 kills and Jenna Leggat’s eight kills, nine digs and three blocks. Setters Kim Lissinna and Caitlin Penrod combined for 29 assists. The Wildcats hit 0.93 for the match as Washington State hit .253.
“We came out a little flat. I think it was like a typical Monday practice where we are a little sluggish coming off a day off and we weren’t quite as focused as we were over the weekend,” WSU Head Coach Andrew Palileo said. “Any time you can go on the road and win four it is a good thing. We are happy with the “w” no matter how we played. Every team we played this weekend was just a little bit different; there weren’t any of the four teams that did the same thing. We won in a lot of different ways so we’re pleased that we won ugly, that we won when we played really well and we won today when we really only had two offensive players out there.”
The Cougars took a 14-7 lead in the first set but Weber State came back with an 8-2 run to close the WSU lead to one. Washington State scored six unanswered points for another seven-point lead. The Wildcats made a late run, stopping the Cougs at set-point three consecutive times before Todorovich landed a kill to give WSU the 25-20 win. Robbins had five kills (.667) and Ganzer had four kills (.500) to lead Washington State. In this set the Cougars hit .233 and held Weber State to a .059 hitting percentage.
Washington State took the lead after an eight-all tie and never looked back. Tillman scored the final two points of the set for the 25-17 win.
The Wildcats played more intently in the third set, knotting the score at 19-all before the Cougars’ front row took over. Ganzer scored three of the final four points as WSU won this set 25-22 and completed a Labor Day weekend with four match sweeps.
The Cougars return to Pullman to host the Nike Cougar Challenge Tournament with Idaho and Cal State Northridge.
