The WSU volleyball team pulled off the impossible Sunday, taking down No. 4 USC in five sets in front of 661 fans in Bohler Gym.

The Cougars’ (17-12, 4-12) highly improbable upset of USC (22-5, 12-4) kept WSU within reach of making the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2009.

“This team was ready to fight,” WSU Head Coach Jen Greeny said. “We’ve had some tough losses this year, but that’s why you play the games. USC is a tremendous team. Just really proud of the way we fought today. “

WSU was down 0-2 to USC in the match after getting dismantled in the first two sets 11-25 and 17-25. After the first two sets the Trojans were out-hitting the Cougars .378 to .013 and winning the blocking battle at the net 8-3.

In the third set the Cougars offense showed up, hitting .189 to the Trojans’ .152 in the final three sets.

“Coming into (the match) we were just trying to not get rattled, no matter what the score was,” senior co-captain Camryn Irwin said. “After the first two sets, coming out of the game break that was the same message, ‘Stay calm, stay consistent.’”

The fifth set was one for the books. With seven scoring ties and four lead changes, the decisive set went way past the typical 15 points with the Cougars ultimately coming away with a 21-19 win.

At one point in the fifth, USC found themselves with a 14-9 lead and match point before the Cougars managed to put together a 5-0 run to break the Trojans’ match point.

Freshman Kyra Holt led a group of four players for WSU who tallied double-digit kill totals against USC. Holt, who recorded 13 kills, was followed by senior Marcelina Glab with 12, junior Jaicee Harris with 11 and freshman Hailey Bethune with 10.

“We just had an aggressive mentality,” Glab said. “When we came out we were a little bitter about the loss to UCLA and we thought, ‘Hey why not? We can do that with any team.’”

Glab, who also recorded six blocks in the win, was as ecstatic about the win as anyone.

“I personally in my career had not even taken a set off of USC in any match up until (Sunday),” she said.

Harris and sophomore Kate Sommer led the Cougar defense with 28 and 26 digs, respectively.

Time at setter was split between Irwin and freshman Haley MacDonald with the majority of assists (33) coming from MacDonald, while Irwin contributed 17.

Holt, Harris and MacDonald all recorded double-doubles in the match.

The win for the Cougars was their second of the season over a ranked opponent, having previously beaten then No. 16 ASU earlier in the year. They are now guaranteed a winning record in 2013, something the team has not accomplished since 2009.

However, the weekend was not perfect for the Cougars, kicking off a heartbreaking loss to UCLA (14-12, 5-11) in a tight fifth set on Friday night. The Bruins won with set scores of 20-25, 25-12, 25-15, 21-25 and 15-13.

Holt led the Cougars against UCLA with 18 kills while hitting .224. Freshman Emmy Allen tallied 13 kills while Junior Ver’Leea Hardaway contributed 11 of her own.

The match ended with another closely contested fifth set that saw five scoring ties and one lead change.

Next up for WSU is a trip down south to take on Stanford and California on Nov. 22 and 24.