A split of its weekend matches moved the Washington State University volleyball team to 15-4 (2-4) on the season.

After an upset victory over No. 16 Arizona State Friday night, the Cougars dropped a close match to Arizona (13-5, 3-3) Sunday afternoon.

The Cougars notched their first victory over a ranked opponent in the Jen Greeny era with their 3-2 (25-23, 23-25, 25-22, 17-25, 15-9) win over ASU Friday.

The last time WSU volleyball beat a ranked opponent was in October of 2009, when they beat No. 4 Washington. The last time Cougar volleyball made an appearance in the NCAA Tournament was also in 2009.

“I think the kids came out more aggressive than we have been in the past few matches, and that was good to see,” Greeny said. “I was really excited to see how we responded after a tough weekend on the road. I really liked the tenacity of our team tonight.”

The Cougars were led by strong offensive performances from junior Jaicee Harris, freshman Kyra Holt and freshman Emmy Allen, who recorded 19, 16 and 10 kills respectively.

After starting the game at setter, senior captain Camryn Irwin was replaced by freshman Haley MacDonald in the first set. MacDonald took the majority of the time throughout the match, recording 38 assists, five digs and one kill.

Beating a ranked team could potentially carry a lot of weight for a Cougar team looking to make an NCAA Tournament appearance.

“Anytime you can get a win in the Pac-12, that’s huge, but to beat a ranked team and a team as good as Arizona State, that’s really important,” Greeny said.

The Cougars followed the upset with another five-set match Sunday, this time falling to Arizona with set scores of 23-25, 25-22, 25-23, 17-25, and 12-15.

“At times (we played) really well,” Greeny said. “Just struggled with consistency today. Passing broke down a lot in the fourth set.”

MacDonald again took the majority of time at setter while recording 34 assists against Arizona.

The use of Irwin and MacDonald at setter during the matches was intended to utilize their individual strengths to run different systems, showing the Arizona schools different looks throughout the match.

“Camryn tends to set behind, the slide, a little more consistently right now,” Greeny said. “Haley kind of disguises her sets a little bit as far as the natural way that she sets. Both Camryn and Haley’s serves are good but different.”

WSU had two players record double-digit kill totals against Arizona with Holt recording 21 and Allen tallying 10 of her own.

Up next for Cougar volleyball are home matches against Stanford Friday, Oct. 18 and California Saturday, Oct. 19.