After hitting .424 in Friday’s sweep of Wright State, No. 21 WSU volleyball (1-1, 0-0 Pac-12) got a taste of their own medicine in a Saturday loss to the hosting No.4 Louisville team in L&N Federal Credit Union Arena in Louisville, Kentucky.

The Cougs struggled to find holes in the Cardinal’s defense all throughout the game but kept it competitive before ultimately losing in a sweep 3-0 (25-19, 25-14, 25-23). Louisville proved their ranking as a top team in the nation with two players tallying double-digit kills. 

Despite the loss, Katy Ryan had a strong performance, as she led the team with 10 kills that she tallied on 21 attacks and two attacking errors, a team-leading .381 hitting percentage. No other Coug hit that well, and as a whole, WSU hit .175 while committing 15 attack errors. 

Though struggling overall, Pia Timmer had nine kills to bring her career total above 1,300. She now has 1,304 in her career and will look to build that number up throughout the year. 

WSU had 34 digs as a team, led by Argentina Ung and Karly Basham, with eight apiece. Timmer had seven of her own and Julia Norville added six, but Louisville still outperformed in that category with 44 digs. 

While the Cougs usually have solid block and service ace performances, they had just one service ace from Norville and one block from the tandem of Iman Isanovic and Lana Radakovic. 

Louisville outperformed the Cougs in many statistical categories, with their only negative comparison to WSU being committing five more service errors. They hit .381 to the Cougs .175, had only 10 attack errors compared to 15, tallied four service aces to one, blocked five attacks to one, and had a side-out percentage of 72.4% to WSU’s 54.8%. 

Led by Anna Debeer’s 17 kills on a .552 hit percentage and Charitie Luper’s 10 kills on .429, the Louisville offense proved to be strong from start to finish. 

The Cougs have a quick opportunity to bounce back as at 8 a.m. Sunday, they take on Troy (0-2) in L&N Federal Credit Union Arena.