After dominating the first set, WSU and Eastern Washington remained close for the second through fourth sets. The rematch from Friday’s WSU win came down to the final set, but the fireworks were limited by a 15-9 set win for the Cougs.
WSU volleyball (3-2, 0-0 WCC) proved their initial win as the true outcome between these two programs with a win over Eastern Washington (1-4, 0-0 Big Sky) on their home court by a final of 3-2 (25-18, 25-27, 26-24, 20-25, 15-9).
The Cougs got off to a hot start, winning the first set with a dominant 25-18 showing. On three straight serves near the beginning of the match, Sage Brustad got back-to-back-to-back kills. Over the entire set, Brustad had five kills and served the ball during a WSU 4-0 run.
Neither team took control in the second set, as either side’s longest run was a mere three points. Utilizing their home-court advantage, Eastern took the win after a service error and attack error by the Cougs to take the set 27-25.
Set three had been nearly identical. Although Eastern went on a 5-0 run early to take a 14-9 lead, WSU had several more mini-runs to make it interesting on the backend.
After winning seven of the last 11 serves, the Cougs came out of the set with the advantage, winning 26-24. Eastern evened things up once again with a win in the fourth set, setting up the shorter deciding fifth set. Entering Monday, WSU had gone 1-1 in fifth sets in 2024, exiting Monday by improving their record to 2-1.
Close at first, WSU got a point off an EWU error to take a 5-4 lead. That error sparked WSU’s biggest run, a 5-0 run that gave the team a 9-4 advantage they never relinquished.
Katy Ryan had her best performance of the year thus far, finishing with 20 kills for the first time in her career to go along with two blocks and three digs. Brustad also kept her good first set going the rest of the way, finishing with 17 kills on her return to her former home court.
Falling short of 20 digs for the first time this year, Emma Barbero had 18 digs in the win. Despite her missing out on starting her total with a two, the Cougs still had a player reach the mark.
Setter Italia Bernal finished with exactly 20 digs on the night to add to her 55 assists on offense.
The win improved the Cougs record to 3-2, their first time holding a winning record of the young season. With four out-of-conference matches left in the preseason, two wins will secure a winning record headed into WCC play.
Next up is the Apple Cup for the Cougs. At 7 p.m. Friday, WSU heads to Seattle to take on the Huskies in Alaska Airlines Arena.
