Katy Ryan finished with 10 kills and five blocks on an efficient .280% hitting and Sage Brustad led the team with 13 kills and added 10 digs for her third double-double of the season, but the Cougs failed to take down the Huskies.

UW (6-0, 0-0 Big Ten) snapped the Cougs (3-3, 0-0 WCC) three-match Apple Cup winning streak by dominating their three winning sets to take home a victory, 3-1 (25-15, 21-25, 25-16, 25-13). 

WSU had won the previous nine sets of play between the two programs, but the new-look teams in their new conferences played completely differently than during the 2023 season. 

In the first set, UW went on their first of several impressive runs. After building a slight 9-7 lead, they won nine straight points and forced the Cougs to call two timeouts. 

Two Taryn Vrieling aces were not enough to spark a late-set WSU comeback, but the momentum stayed on the side of the Cougs entering the second set. In the one win the Cougs got, the Cougs had their own 5-0 run to take control of the set in the late stages. 

Momentum swung again and never changed with the Huskies going back to their first-set form to dominate the rest of the match. They bookended the third set with a 4-0 start and 6-0 run to finish it out. 

Set four did not have the same extended runs, but UW went on four separate runs of three or more points. 

All said and done, both teams made a similar amount of attack errors, but the biggest difference came from successful attacks. UW finished with 62 kills, a much better showing than the Cougs 36 kills. 

UW’s Kierstyn Barton became the Coug’s biggest foe. She had a career night, doubling the next closest on her team in kills, finishing with 22 kills with just three attack errors. Her .500% hitting on 38 attacks made it near impossible for the Cougs to survive the offensive onslaught against them. 

WSU has one match left over the weekend to bounce back, facing UC Davis Saturday after one night’s rest.