The Cougar volleyball team ended a stretch of four games against teams ranked in the Top-15 with a 3-0 win over No. 5 Arizona State on Sunday, and a near victory in the first match of the weekend against No. 14 Arizona.

Arizona

The Cougars (13-5, 2-4 Pac-12) took Arizona (12-5, 2-3) to five sets. The game was as close at it could be at the end, as WSU lost 15-13 in the final set after freshman middle blocker Ella Lajos’ attack attempt was blocked by Arizona’s Tyler Spriggs. Lajos played well in her first extensive action of the season, finishing with 8 blocks and 8 kills.

“I just thought, ‘close and get there’ and just not get nervous inside my head,” Lajos said of her mentality going into the match. As for the final play, she said “It was a mishit, I didn’t see the block.”

The Cougars couldn’t keep up with Arizona in the first set, as the Wildcats outhit WSU .410 to .176 and beat the Cougars 25-18. After that, the Cougars’ defense tightened up, holding Arizona to under a .100 hitting percentage in each of the next four sets. Freshman outside hitter McKenna Woodford caught fire in the second, and was hitting .444 with eight kills at the break after WSU tied up the game with a 25-18 win in set two.

A 19-13 Cougar lead in the third set was squandered as Arizona came back to take it 25-23. After winning the fourth, 25-16, WSU once again took a commanding lead in the fifth, 10-6. The lead may have been stretched further, but a controversial call cost WSU a point. Junior defensive specialist Tani Stephens appeared to land a kill right inside the baseline, but it was called out of bounds by the official. Arizona tied the game at 10 and maintained only a one-point lead until Spriggs’ block ended the game.

“I liked our passion tonight. We’ve been lacking that in some of our past matches,” Woodford said. “The fact that we came out here and gave it our all is something to be proud of. This is a lot of experience for us (freshmen) and we get a lot out of going five and losing by two points. We also get that feeling of what it’s like to lose by two points and don’t ever want to do that again.”

Head Coach Jen Greeny was proud of her young team for its resiliency and ability to fight back against yet another highly-ranked opponent, specifically citing how WSU’s serving kept Arizona’s offense out of rhythm.

“Because of the service pressure we put on Arizona, we were able to set a really solid block and that is a huge part of our game,” Greeny said. “We couldn’t come away with the win at the end, but I was proud of the effort of this team against a very, very talented Arizona squad.”

Junior outside hitter Kyra Holt led the team with 17 kills, 15 digs, four blocks and 19 points, and Woodford finished with 16 kills and five blocks. Sophomore outside hitter Casey Schoenlein also tallied seven kills and six blocks, including two solo blocks. Senior libero Kate Sommer led the team with 30 digs.

ASU

Bouncing back from a heartbreaking, five-set loss to Arizona, the Cougars didn’t let another opportunity to knock off a ranked team in Bohler pass by, sweeping No. 5 Arizona State (15-2, 4-2) by scores of 25-14, 25-17 and 25-21. It was WSU’s first sweep of a ranked team since 2009 against then-No. 16 USC.

Entering the game, the Sun Devils led the Pac-12 conference in average kill totals and hit percentage per set while the Cougars ranked last in those categories. Behind junior outside hitter Kyra Holt’s 11-kill, 12-dig performance, the Cougars capitalized on Sun Devil mistakes and picked apart a flat-footed defense, out-hitting ASU by a .286-.055 percentage margin. ASU entered the weekend with a hitting percentage of .269, and the Cougars .111.

“I think it was such a tight game Friday night that we came out today with more hunger and fight. We kept grinding at what we’d been working on in practice and it came (together) today,” Holt said. “We have such a huge freshman class and they didn’t live our past; now we can have the Pac-12 respect us as a team.”

The defensive effort was led by Woodford’s four blocks and middle blocker Taylor Mims’s match-leading five. The Cougars out-blocked the Sun Devils 10-2.

Setting up Holt and Mims for their combined 17 kills out of the Cougars’ 41, junior setter Hayley MacDonald recorded 35 assists for the game.

Greeny was quick to point out her team’s defense and patient offensive attack as catalysts in her team’s best win on the season thus far.

“I think our defense and passing were exceptional, especially in the first two sets,” Greeny said. “I thought we blocked well and served really tough today and we were able to get it done. Haley MacDonald spread the offense well and our hitters did a fantastic job.”

For a team that went 1-19 in the Pac-12 last year, the marked improvement the Cougars have shown this year came full-circle in breaking through against a top-5 team and well-renowned program.

WSU also took No. 6 Washington to five sets earlier this year in Bohler and after letting another ranked team escape Pullman on Friday night, Greeny hopes her squad will carry this momentum into next week when the Oregon schools pay a visit to the state of Washington.

“We’ll take a win any way we can get it, but for some confidence for this team, we have been really close in a couple matches and to come out and win in three was really important and hopefully we can carry this on to next weekend,” Greeny said.

The Cougars will stay in Bohler this week to take on Oregon State at 5:30 p.m. on Friday, and No. 25 Oregon at 1 p.m. on Sunday.