Heading into the week, senior Katy Ryan had just achieved the milestone of her 1,000th career kill, firmly cementing her legacy as one of the all-time greats for WSU volleyball. 

After last week’s performance, she won her first WCC weekly award as the conference named her the WCC Player of the Week for her performances against Pacific and Saint Mary’s. 

Ryan led the league with 47 kills, primarily coming from the reverse sweep comeback against Saint Mary’s that saw her finish with a career-best 30 kills. The mark had been one kill away from tying the mark of third-best in five sets in program history, which would have tied her with the likes of Meagan Ganzer and Magda Jehlárova. 

Playing efficiently, she hit .471% over the week, with both performances finishing as her two best of the season thus far. The .389% and .531% marks brought her season percentage to .231%, bringing her closer to her career averages entering the season.

Not the only one to receive an accolade, freshman Lucie Blažková joined the party as the conference named her the WCC Freshman of the Week.

Redshirting last season behind Jehlárová and other experienced middle’s has begun to show merit as Blažková finished with 13 blocks and 15 kills on .378% hitting. Her 1.44 blocks per set were second best in the conference for the week and it brought her WCC average to a seventh-best in the conference 1.08. 

The two weekly awards are the third and fourth such accolades for the Cougs in 2024 after libero Emma Barbero won the WCC Defensive Player of the Week early in the season and Breccan Scheck won a WCC Freshman of the Week honor. 

Fresh of their weekly honors, the Cougs are back in action at 7 p.m. Thursday at home against Oregon State.