Volleyball looks to bounce back Saturday at USC
PULLMAN, Wash. - Washington State volleyball (8-4) continues its third-consecutive road trip with eyes on capturing its first Pac-12 win of the season on Saturday at Southern Cal (9-3) beginning at 2 p.m. (PST). Fans can tune in live online via the USC Live Stream.
The Cougars have won three of the last four matchups with USC dating back to 2019 including a 3-0 road sweep in the second of two matches last season.
WSU saw a streak of three-consecutive wins in conference openers snapped in a 3-0 loss at 18th-ranked Washington on Wednesday night on the road in Seattle. The Cougs are in the midst of a nine-match stretch of away contests with their first two weeks of conference play sending them on the road. WSU will benefit from back-to-back home weekends to close both October and November, respectively.
WSU at USC Match Info:
>> Saturday, Sept. 24 // First serve - 2:00 p.m. (PST)
>> Los Angeles, Calif. - Galen Center
>> Live Stats // wsucougars.com/sports/womens-volleyball
>> Listen Live // KQQQ - 1150 AM/102.1 FM (wsucougars.com)
>> Full notes PDF
Cougar Quick Notes:
>> Washington State ranks No. 2 in the Pac-12 with 1.95 aces/set and 82 total aces as a team. The all-time WSU record of 1.91 aces/set dates back to 1988.
>> WSU is No. 17 in the nation and third in the conference with a .285 hitting percentage going into the weekend.
>> At .285 hitting as a team, the Cougs' current pace would rank as the highest single season all-time hitting percentage with the program record standing at .283 (1890-645-4396) from the 1996 team that finished 27-6 with a run to the NCAA Elite Eight.
>> Starting libero Karly Basham has the second most aces (20) in the conference while averaging 3.00 digs/set.
>> Magda Jehlarova ranks No. 7 in the conference in hitting (.350), having put up a line of 93-24-197 from the middle so far this season. Jehlarova is top-10 in all major career blocking categories at WSU including her 1.40 blocks/set which ranks second all-time.
>> Pia Timmer is sixth all-time in kills/set at 3.16 over 308 sets played and holds the third-highest mark since sets were shortened to the 25-point scoring system. At 974 career kills heading into the weekend, Timmer is also quickly closing in on joining the 1,000 career kills club.
>> Jen Greeny captured career win number 300 as a college head coach against Rider (8/26) and is now only nine victories from her 200th win leading her alma mater.
>> Defensive specialist Julia Norville is one of five Cougs to make an appearance in all 42 sets so far this season. She is tied for second on the team with 14 aces at the service line to go along with 1.83 digs/set defensively.
>> Setter Argentina Ung was forced to play outside in Wednesday's loss at Washington, a position she spent time playing in her first two seasons as a Coug. Ung is averaging 1.44 pts/set to go along with her 9.45 assists/set.
>> Katy Ryan has tallied double digit kills five times so far this season, finishing with a team-high seven on Wednesday against No. 18 Washington. Ryan has also hit .300 or better six times this season with two matches over .500.
USC Notes
>> Southern Cal defeated cross-town rival UCLA (6-4), 3-1, in its conference opener on Thursday night. Skylar Fields finished with 24 kills while Mia Tuaniga dished out 50 assists in Thursday night's win.
>> USC opened the season on a four-match win streak before dropping back-to-back matches to Creighton (3-1) and Kentucky (3-0), respectively. The Trojans split road matches at Hawaii before closing non-conference play on a three-match winning streak.
>> Washington State has won three of the last four matchups dating back to 2019 including a 3-0 road sweep in the second of two matches last season.
>> WSU has won the last two matches played at the Galen Center and are 3-2 over the last five meetings with the Trojans.
Up Next:
Washington State will see its fourth-straight road trip next week, capping off a nine-match stretch of away matches with a trip to play California (7-4) on Fri., Sept. 30, at 7 p.m., followed by a match at Stanford (6-3) on Sun., Oct. 2, beginning at 12 p.m.
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