The Cougars took first place at the Purdue Mortar Board Premier Tournament Saturday afternoon after defeating a top-25 team Friday night.

WSU arrived at Holloway Gymnasium at West Lafayette, Indiana, and swept No.24 University of Kentucky (2-1) in straight sets in its first game of the season. WSU recorded five aces, blocked 11 attacks and scored 41 kills in the upset win Friday afternoon.

Senior outside hitter Kyra Holt was on top of her game in the match, nabbing 10 digs, 10 kills and two aces. The set scores were 25-17, 25-22 and 25-17.

The last time WSU beat a ranked team was on Oct. 11, 2015, against No.5 Arizona State in a 3-0 victory. Kentucky’s most recent loss to an unranked team in nonconference play came last year against Wichita State in a score of 3-2.

Later on Friday, senior outside hitter Kyra Holt put up 20 kills and 23 points on a the tournament host, the 20th-ranked Purdue Boilermakers (2-1), but WSU could not match Purdue offensively. The Cougs lost their second game of the tournament on Friday evening 3-1 in set scores of 26-28, 20-25, 25-29 and 21-25.

Although many of the highlight stats for both teams were similar, the Boilermakers countered the Cougars 11 blocks with 62 kills in the match along with 56 digs and 10 blocks. Purdue was coming off of a sweep of Wyoming (0-3) earlier that day.

On Saturday, WSU won its third and final game of the tournament in a 3-1 victory against Wyoming largely in part due to 18 kills from Holt.

Holt was not the only player who fared well in the tournament. Sophomore middle blocker Taylor Mims left Indiana with 19 kills, 31.5 points and only six errors for the weekend. Senior outside hitter Hailey Bethune also had a great tournament, recording 22 kills to just one attack error with a .500 hitting percentage

Holt, Mims and Bethune were named to the all-tournament team, and Holt was named tournament MVP. Holt put up a staggering 56 points, 48 kills and 26 digs for the weekend.

Kentucky beat out Purdue Unayette, indiana, ersity later Saturday night to force a three-way tie for first place at between the two schools and WSU. WSU was awarded first place as the championship trophy was given to the team with the highest winning percentage. Kentucky placed second and Purdue was third.

WSU will next play against Northeastern University (3-1) in Long Beach, California, on Friday morning as part of the Long Beach State Tournament. The Huskies are coming off a four-game weekend at the Florida Atlantic Tournament where they beat Bethune Cookman University, North Florida University and host Florida Atlantic University. The huskies lone loss came to Drake University.

WSU will also play UC Irvine and Long Beach State University on Saturday. The Cougars first home game of the season is set for Sept. 9 against Maryland Eastern Shore as a part of The Cougar Challenge from Sept.9-10 in Bohler Gymnasium.

Conference play begins in Seattle on Sept. 21 with a match against the University of Washington.

Reporting by Josh Brody