Four weeks ago, it was made public that Jackie Carle and Italia Bernal were both hitting the transfer portal. At the time, this left the Cougars with Livia Ward as the only setter on the team.
On Wednesday, the Cougs fixed at least part of the setter shortage by signing setter Audrey Hollis. Hollis will be a true junior in the fall and is a transfer from the University of Hawai’i. Before playing in Hawaii, she played at UC San Diego in 2024.
As a sophomore at Hawai’i, she recorded 125 assists and 49 digs. However, she only played in 16 out of 29 matches and 38 total sets.
At UC San Diego, however, she produced. As a freshman, while playing both setter and opposite, she logged 921 assists, 8.86 assists per set (fifth-most in the Big West Conference in 2024), 188 digs, 48 blocks, 57 kills and 17 service aces. She played in 27 out of 30 matches, starting in 25 of them, and helped the Tritons achieve an overall record of 17–13, which allowed them to qualify for the Big West Championship in the team’s first year of eligibility.
For her freshman-year efforts, she made the Big West All-Freshman team.
Hollis even has championship-level DNA after she helped lead her club volleyball team to win the USA Volleyball 18s National Championship in the National Division in 2022.
Despite her statistically underwhelming season at Hawai’i this past year, head coach Korey Schroeder and company will look to tap into the upside she showed in her freshman year.
“Audrey brings a lot of [experience] and [success] for us at the setter position. Her freshman season she ran a 5-1 for a very successful UC-San Diego team while she was still 17 years old,” Schroeder said about her in a statement posted on the WSU Athletics website upon signing her.
