WSU’s 3-1 loss against the Huskies on Wednesday marked their first pair of back-to-back losses against UW since 2021-2022. 

It was a tough loss for the Cougars to swallow as they came into the game on a three-game win streak, while UW was coming off a loss against San Diego University. It was also the first game in Bohler for WSU this season.

WSU stood strong for the first three sets, winning the first one and only losing the next two by a combined five points. However, they ended the game losing the last set by six, tied for the second most they have lost a set by thus far.

“I think we unfortunately went a little flat at the end of the fourth set,” WSU head coach Korey Schroeder said. “[I] would have liked to see a little bit more fight there.”

With that in mind, let’s look back at what went wrong for the Cougs in their 46th Apple Cup…

Slow Start in Sets:

WSU started the first set down 4-1 and the second, third and fourth down 7-4. This resulted in them having to mount heavy comebacks to try to win sets.

They were able to pull it off in the first set after going on an 11-6 run when they trailed 17-14. They were led by outside hitter Melina Christodoulou who had six kills in the set, including three kills on the late-set run.

The next three sets starting out down 7-4, however, proved to be a hill too high to climb. 

In the second set, they pulled ahead after their slow start, going up 13-11, but then immediately allowed UW to go on a 6-1 run to reclaim the lead at 17-14. They then did go back and forth with the Huskies until they narrowly lost the set 25-22, but starting out slow did not help them.

“I think the second set was a little bit mute from our side,” middle blocker Lucie Blažková said. “I think we could have done a little bit better… they just went on and on and we couldn’t catch up anymore.”

The third set was the main instance where starting out slow cost the Cougs the set and really the game as well. After going down 7-4, UW extended their lead by four, going up 24-20 after a kill by outside hitter Alexa Markley.

The Cougars managed to go on a 4-0 run to force the game to extra sets, tied at 24. However, back to back quick kills by the Dawgs won them the set 26-24. The Cougs were gaining momentum at the end of the set, and had an opportunity to steal the set. 

Had they not gone down by three early on, there’s a good chance they would have won that set. That would have given them a 2-1 lead in sets and a strong opportunity to pull off the upset.

As for the fourth set, trailing early on gave UW only more momentum from winning the third set, which ultimately resulted in a 25-19 win for the Huskies.

The team fell back early on in the sets, which made them have to comeback in every set. If they had performed better early on, there’s a strong chance they could have won the game.

However, falling behind early on in sets is something that has happened in nearly every game for the Cougs, and it cost them against Dayton and Utah earlier in the year. In recent games they had been able to pull out the close set wins, but this problem for the Cougs showed again on Wednesday night.

“We’d love to get out to a strong start and stay ahead and not have to come back,” Schroeder said. “But I also have a team that’s better in the 20s than they are from [points] zero to five.”

Lack of Blocks:

WSU in the game only recorded five blocks, which is their second fewest in a game this season. The only game they had fewer was in their first game of the season against Lafayette.

Going into the Apple Cup, one of the main things Wazzu had been working on to slow down the UW attack was their blocking.

“As a right side, I can say that we’ve been working a lot on our blocking,” opposite hitter Mary Healy said.

In the eight games UW had played prior to the Apple Cup, one of their outside hitters, Kierstyn Barton, had already recorded 108 kills in the season. Markley had 99 kills headed into the game as well.

The Cougs knew what they were getting into and had prepared for it, but they still could not slow them down. In total, Barton had 21 kills on the night, Markley had 14 and as a team, UW combined for 58 kills. This was the second most amount of kills they allowed on the season, and the most they have allowed in a four-set match.

UW also had a .267 hitting percentage, which was their third highest on the season. UW has several kills through WSU blocks as well.

WSU struggled to slow down Barton and the Husky offense. To a large extent, this came from a lack of blocks, especially as UW recorded 13 on the night.

If Wazzu had blocked UW more often, they could have stopped some of their long runs and flipped momentum, which would have likely set them up with a better chance to win.

Inconsistent Play:

A lot of their inconsistent play came from the long runs that they allowed in sets. In the game, they allowed UW to have nine runs where they scored three or more points in a row.

Some of these came at back breaking points in the game as well. For example, in the second set, after going on a 4-2 run of their own to go up 14-13, they allowed UW to go on 6-3 run to go up 20-17. The Cougars ended up dropping that set 25-22.

They were able to go on small runs of their own, and then immediately gave the momentum back to the Huskies.

In the third set, which ultimately flipped the momentum in UW’s favor, they allowed two 3-0 runs, and one of them came when the Cougars were only down 20-18.

They would later go on a 4-0 run in the set, but they still lost the set. Had they minimized the UW 3-0 to possibly just 2-0, there’s a strong chance they would have stolen the second set.

It is also important to note, however, that Wazzu had a costly miscommunication where the ball dropped between two Cougars to give UW their 24th point of the set.

In the fourth set, the Cougs allowed a 5-0, 3-0 and two 4-0 runs. Following the 3-0 run, they responded with a 3-0 run of their own, but then gave up another 4-0 run.

They were not able to piece together complete sets and it led to big swings of momentum, which often favored UW.

At times they were also inconsistent with their serves. In the second set, after WSU benefitted from a UW service error to give the Cougs a 14-13 lead, Christodoulou had a service error of her own to tie the game at 14. The Huskies then followed this up with a 3-0 run.

WSU had five more service errors after this, ending the night with eight total. Although many of the other service errors did not result in long runs for UW, it gave them a free point. The Cougs typically were fine with serving, but the few service errors they had cost them.

Lastly, in the fourth set, WSU continuously force fed the left side of the net to get kills and it was not working. UW racked up many blocks and the Cougs fell behind 5-11. They finally got the left side swinging successfully again when they subbed in outside hitter Taryn Vrieling, but it was essentially too little too late at that point.

Vrieling finished the game with three kills after being subbed in halfway through the last set. Sure they were successful at times on the left side, but they stuck by it too much, and it became unsuccessful as the game went on, mainly in the fourth set.

Vrieling did help out the misfires on the left side, but had they spread the ball out more or had there been better placement consistently, they could have found themselves with a chance to force a fifth set.

Overall, it was a tough loss for the Cougs. But with it, they learned what they need to fix headed into tonight’s game against Eastern Washington. The game starts at 6:00 p.m. in Bohler Gymnasium.