696 were in attendance, the most at Redhawk Center since 2008, when the Cougs won three consecutive sets to remain undefeated in the West Coast conference last night.

Seattle University (6-8, 0-3) joined the WCC this school year and was looking to get their first win in conference play in their program’s history. The Redhawks and WSU had previously played each other five times, all resulting in Cougar wins.

However, in the first set, it seemed the Redhawks could flip the series and get their first WCC win. Seattle University opened up the set leading 9-2. In that run, Seattle University’s Madyn Cervellera, an outside hitter, racked up four kills and the Redhawks recorded two service aces.

The Redhawks then went on 5-4 run to make it 14-6. Up to that point in the match, Seattle University was hitting .421, while the Cougs were hitting .067.

The Cougs tried to make it competitive, going on a 7-6 run, led by middle blocker Camryn Lingenbrink who recorded two kills. However, the Redhawks eventually went on to finish the set 25-17.

The Cougs had a rough overall performance offensively in the first set. They only hit .030 and had just eight kills. However, both Lingenbrink and middle blocker Lucie Blažková had three kills.

The second set was the closest one of the game. The first timeout was not taken until the Cougs were up 13-11, and neither team had more than a two-point lead in that set up to that point. One of the big things that was helping WSU in the set was the amount of aces they recorded. Outside hitter Taryn Vrieling had two, on top of two aces combined by libero Tinons Munar Galmés and outside hitter Mary Healy. Vrieling, Blažková and Lingenbrink also all had four kills, and the team as a whole had increased their hitting percentage to .111.

Out of the timeout, the two teams both racked up five more points before the Redhawks called another timeout. During that stretch, Wazzu’s outside hitter Eliana Ti’a hit two more kills – putting her up to five on the night.

After the timeout, the Redhawks went on a 3-2 run after two WSU offensive errors and a Cervellera ace to make the score 20-19. However, that was the closest they would get. After a WSU timeout, WSU recorded five straight kills. Ti’a hit the first one, and Blažková recorded the last four to win the set 25-19 for the Cougs 

WSU carried this momentum into the third, going on a 9-2 run to open the set. In that stretch, WSU recorded three more service aces, including Vrieling’s fourth of the night. After a timeout, the Cougs extended this lead to eight, going up 14-6. Outside hitter Melina Christodoulou contributed to this 5-4 run by hitting two kills.

The Cougs then finished the set 25-12. Blažková came up big for WSU again at the end of the set as well, contributing three kills and a blocking assist in the last seven points.

At this point, all the Cougs had all the momentum. They were hitting .177 while the Redhawks’ had a .139 hitting percentage – a complete turnaround compared to the beginning of the game. Also, Blažková had 13 kills, Vrieling had seven and Ti’a had six.

The fourth set saw the Redhawks race to a 3-0 lead, before the Cougs went on a 7-1 run, led by Vrieling who recorded three kills. Then the Cougars went up 10-7 before going on a 5-2 run to lead 15-9. Christodoulou hit two kills during the run, and then hit two more within the first four points after a Redhawks’ timeout.

The Cougs eventually went on to finish the set with a 25-17 win. This was their fourth straight win. 

In total, Blažková recorded 16 kills and 6 blocks, all while hitting a .423. Vrieling finished the night with 11 kills, four service aces, five digs and two blocks.

Compared to last week, in this game, the Cougs performed better in the serve game. WSU head coach Korey Schroeder going into the game said how they had been working on their serve-receive and first-ball execution heading into the match.

“On the stat side… we’ve been really good with our first ball,” Schroeder said. “We weren’t as good at it this past week [against San Francisco and Santa Clara]. Specifically, our serve-receive limited our ability to score on that first ball. So [we’re] trying to zero in on our serve-receive and being able to get back to winning that first-ball contest.”

Last night, they only allowed nine service aces, better than the 10 they averaged allowing the two previous games – including a game where they allowed 15. They also recorded 14 aces against the Redhawks, compared to 17 total against both San Francisco and Santa Clara.

Additionally, they performed strong offensively in sets two through four, which was one of the other key reasons they won. At the end of the first set, they had a hitting percentage of 0.030. By the end of the game, it had increased to .228. 

With the win, the Cougs remain undefeated against the Redhawks and in WCC play, and now turn their attention to tomorrow’s match against Gonzaga (8-5, 1-1). The first serve is at 1:00 p.m. in Bohler Gymnasium.