WSU volleyball (11-2) fell 3-1 to No. 7 Washington (11-1) on Wednesday night, snapping their eight-game winning streak to open up this season’s conference play.

The crowd was loud from the opening serve, where the Cougars battled from the start. However, a couple miscues led to a three-point Huskies lead in the first set. Freshman Penny Tusa held the Cougar defense down with 17 total digs.WSU failed to finish a couple of long rallies down the stretch to lose the opening set 19-25.
The Cougs had a difficult time getting it through the Huskies’ front line of defense. The team failed to build any kind of momentum in the second set. The Huskies got off to an early lead and never looked back, winning the second set 25-18.

“I think they put a pretty solid block up on me in that second set,” junior outside hitter McKenna Woodford said. “They have some pretty big kids up there and that made it difficult.”

In the third set, WSU got off to a hot start, but UW went on a 5-0 run to take the lead. The Cougars kept fighting as junior middle blocker Claire Martin rattled off a couple of kills in the late stages of the set.

With two scores to go to win the set, redshirt sophomore middle blocker Jocelyn Urias floated one over the Huskies’ defense and into the corner for the kill. Then, junior outside hitter Taylor Mims scored with a powerful strike to secure the third set.

“I think we just decided to play in the third set,” Woodford said. “I mean, it took us awhile, we kinda sat back on our heels a bit to see what they were going to do and we finally just decided ‘you know what, we can beat this team, we just have to go play and be aggressive and hit hard and see what happens.’ ”

WSU didn’t open up the fourth set the way they had hoped, failing to convert on attempts and making a couple miscommunication errors.
Head Coach Jen Greeny challenged a call and won halfway through the fourth, making it a one-point game instead of a three-point game. The Cougs then went on a 6-0 run to give them a 14-12 lead.

“This is the first year we’ve had the challenge rule so, it’s pretty fun,” Greeny said. “I always think I make the right call, but yeah it brings us some momentum when we can get a call.”

The rest of the set was back and forth, but the Huskies’ defense clenched up late in the stretch, giving them a three-point lead going into the match point. Senior outside hitter Courtney Schwan finished the final kill.

“I thought we made some silly mistakes and that our passing could have been a lot better and I think those will get better as we go along this season,” Greeny said. “That’s a very good Washington team, we just have to continue on to the next one.”

UW’s senior outside hitter Crissy Jones led the way with 18 kills on 40 attempts, earning the highest attack percentage in the game.
A rematch will take place later this season though, as WSU travels to Alaska Airlines Arena on Nov. 24.