A fight until the bitter end finished with another narrow defeat against a ranked team for the Cougars.

Washington State Volleyball (9-11, 0-8) traveled to Arizona over the weekend and faced No. 16 Arizona on Friday and No. 17 Arizona State on Sunday, but lost both matches.

“There was really scrappy play on both sides of the net,” Head Coach Jen Greeny told KQQQ-AM Radio Sunday. “Arizona State’s a really great team and it was back and forth, which makes it really exciting.”

A tough loss out of Tucson for WSU meant a 3-1 victory for the Wildcats (16-3, 5-2), Friday night. The Cougars struggled to tally points in the first two sets, but came back to win the third by two. Arizona came out in the fourth with a vengeance, winning the set 25-17, and securing the match victory.

“I thought we did a pretty good job blocking and defensively,” Greeny said in an interview with wsucougars.com. “On the offensive side, we have to do a lot better to get the win.”

Senior outside hitter Jaicee Harris led the team with 13 kills, and also had 11 digs. Senior middle blocker Chelsey Bettinson followed with 7 kills. Junior libero Kate Sommer lead the team with 16 digs.

In the match against ASU (14-6, 4-4) on Sunday, the Sun Devils led the first set early. At one point, ASU had a five-point lead, but the Cougs made a comeback and took the set 28-26. WSU took that momentum into the second set to pick up a 25-21 win. The Sun Devils came back to win the third by a score of 25-18. Despite the Cougs leading the majority of the fourth set, the Sun Devils came back to tie it up at 21 and tied the match at two with a 25-23 victory. Ultimately the match went in favor of ASU, as they took the fifth set 15-11.

Harris led the weekend in kills, with 33 overall and 34 digs on defense.

“(Jaicee Harris) has been doing a really nice job – really steady both defensively and offensively. That’s all you can ask for,” Greeny said.

Sommer led the Cougs defensively, digging 32 balls against ASU. Sophomore outside hitter Emmy Allen also made her presence known in both matches, but especially against the Sun Devils, taking over for Kyra Holt early in the match.

“Emmy had six kills and no errors, so she did a good job on the outside and got some blocks as well, so she really sparked us offensively,” Greeny said.

Bettinson tacked on another solid performance over the weekend. She leads the Cougs in hitting percentage, service aces, and blocks, and she added 24 kills against the Arizona schools.

The Cougars take on Colorado and Utah this weekend. WSU will compete against the Buffs (12-8, 4-4) at 7 p.m. Friday in Bohler, and then the Utes (12-17,2-6) at 11 a.m. on Sunday.

Reporting by Bridgette Larsen