In their first Sweet 16 since 2018, WSU volleyball (26-8) struggled after a close first set and never found their footing in a loss to the hosting and No. 1-seeded Pitt Panthers (28-4). The loss marks the end of the season for the Cougs and the end of the careers of several program greats.

The loss is the last time for eight players to suit up for the program. As the recruiting season and offseason procedures begin, WSU will look to fill in the massive shoes left by Magda Jehlárová, Pia Timmer, Karly Basham, Iman Isanovic, Lana Radakovic, Julia Norville, Weronika Wojdyla and Peyton Claus.

“A lot of these fifth-year seniors broke tons of records. They wrote their name in a lot of record books, really proud of them,” head coach Jen Greeny said. 

Against Pitt, WSU fell 3-0 (25-20, 25-13, 25-16), with only the first set being truly competitive. That first set had 11 ties and four lead changes, with the final two sets containing one combined tie and no lead changes. 

“As the game went on, they were able to take advantage of our [serve and pass breaking down],” Greeny said. 

In the opening set, WSU hit their best mark of the match, a .273% clip. That mark fell to .071% and .042% in the second and third sets, respectively, ending in a match total of .141%. 

Even in the first set, the Cougs had shown a lot of fight. Despite falling down 17-21, a run of kills by Jehlárová and Isanovic sandwiched a Pitt attack error to make it 20-21. But after that, the Cougs never were that close late in a set again. 

No individual got to double-digit kills, but Isanovic led the pack with eight. Timmer and Jehlárová both finished with seven, but it was far from enough to make it close. 

Pitt’s Olivia Babcock had the most kills from both sides, finishing with 15 on hitting .500%. Her dominance did not stop there, as she had four service aces (the same amount the entire WSU team had), six digs and five total blocks. The Cougs did not have an answer for her, nor much of the rest of the team.

After hitting .314% in the first set, the Panther kept improving. They had their best set in set two, hitting .591% after finishing with 15 kills and just two attack errors. Overall, they hit .425% with just nine total attack error, which is realistically as good as a team can perform this deep into the tournament. 

In that second set, the Panthers pounced on the Cougs. An early 8-1 lead was never challenged despite two 3-0 runs from WSU and Pitt proved why they earned a top seed. 

While the loss is far from ideal, WSU officially set a few more program records in the loss. Despite hitting .141% in the match, they finished the season hitting .289% overall, the best single-season mark in program history. 

On an individual level, with her first of two service aces, Timmer set the program record for career aces. She finished her career with 152, two more than the previous record. 

Jehlárová tallied three more blocks in her final performance, raising her career total to 769 and padding her lead at the top of several record books in the process. She also finished the season hitting .424%, breaking her own record for the best single-season mark in WSU program history. Her career-hitting percentage of .384% also shatters the record for career-hitting percentage in program history.

While the 2023 season is over and the WSU careers of eight Cougs are over, they will not soon be forgotten. 

“I had a lot of fun playing with the team. I love all the girls,” Timmer said.