On Oct. 8, 2023, WSU volleyball lost their second match of the season after rattling off 14 straight victories and posting an undefeated 13-0 September. However, on Aug. 31, 2024, WSU volleyball (0-2) lost 3-1 (25-11, 18-25, 25-16, 25-19) to Houston for their second loss of the new season.
In the battle of the Cougars namesake, WSU never managed a run of more than four straight points while allowing several of such runs by their opposition.
Houston began the opening set on a 6-0 run and never looked back. Allowing just 11 points to the Cougs, the Cougars of Houston took the opener 25-11. On a perfect 13 kills with zero errors, the offense of Houston dissected a WSU defense working through the kinks of using nine transfers.
To the credit of WSU, hitting .533% in the second set to rebound and take a 25-18 victory gave the semblance of a close match, but Houston took care of business with dominant defense in the third and final sets to eliminate the potential of a fifth set.
In those final two sets, WSU had one more error than kill, hitting nearly a perfect goose egg. Despite the inconsistent attacks, they lost the final two sets 25-16 and 25-19, meaning there were still significant gaps, but gaps that could be closed by limiting those errors.
Lucie Blažková once again was the most consistent offensive force, hitting .429% while finishing with a team fourth-best eight kills.
After using a two-setter system in the season opener, Italia Bernal got all the looks at the position, posting 35 assists in the loss to the Cougars.
One of the biggest issues plaguing the Cougs came from their serve defense. Houston’s Barakat Rahmon had five service aces. Overall, Houston had eight aces, including four aces in the opening set. In the penultimate point of the entire match, Kate Georgiades got her one and only ace of the match to give Houston six match points against WSU.
Of the three teams WSU faced in the opening weekend, Houston projects to the best, with WSU playing below them but close, the Cougs showed the potential necessary to continue their extended NCAA Tournament streak.
