Cougars tally a dozen aces, beat Arizona in four sets

by wsucougars.com
Nov 13, 2022

TUCSON, Ariz. -- 25th-ranked Washington State volleyball (19-8, 11-5 Pac-12) hit .311 (62-21-132) as a team to complete the desert sweep as it finished off its first 2-0 road trip of the Pac-12 season in its last road trip on the schedule with a 3-1 win Sunday at Arizona (14-13, 4-12 Pac-12).  The pins controlled the action all day for the Cougars as Pia Timmer (19), Laura Jansen (15), and opposite hitter Katy Ryan (15) each had double digit kills on the afternoon.

Washington State had 12 aces as a team in the win, its highest total through the first eight weeks of conference play.  Ryan started the match with 11 kills on her first 14 swings (11-1-14, .714) to carry the Cougs early and Timmer again helped WSU close out the match with a team-leading eight kills in the fourth set (8-1-15, .467).

The Cougars improve to 14-1 on the season when hitting .300 or better as they finished at .311 for the afternoon and are also now 16-2 on the season when earning the edge in service aces after only giving up five aces in the match.

Set 1 Recap
Katy Ryan got off to a quick start with seven kills in the opening set. Arizona went on a 7-0 run midway though the set to jump in front 21-14 after the two teams were tied at 14-14. WSU fought off four set points before the Wildcats finally finished off the set, 25-22.

Set 2 Recap

WSU went on a 4-0 run early to take a three-point lead at 8-5 early in the second. The Cougars later went on another 4-0 to push its lead to five at 12-7. 

 

Pia Timmer served WSU through a 6-0 run that included a pair of aces from the senior outside hitter.  The run was later capped off by block assist from Magda Jehlarova and Argentina Ung to give WSU a 22-12 advantage and the Cougars eventually won the set 25-17 on a Wildcats' service error.  The Cougars hit .407 as a team in the second while Arizona suffered seven attacking errors and hit just .133 as a team.

Set 3 Recap
A solo block from Laura Jansen finished off a 4-0 Cougars' run and forced an early Arizona timeout as WSU took a 9-5 lead.  A solo block from Weronika Wojdyla later gave WSU a 12-7 lead and a Jansen ace made it a 13-7 lead for the Cougars.  Jansen's second ace of the set came at the tail end of a 3-0 burst to give WSU a 23-15 lead and Pia Timmer later finished things off with her team-leading fifth kill of the second set.

Timmer's five kills came on only eight attempts (5-1-8, .500) and WSU tallied four blocks as a team to go in front in the match for the first time.

Set 4 Recap
The Cougars again forced early timeouts from the Arizona bench as they jumped ahead, 7-3, before another quick 3-0 burst to go ahead 10-4.  The Wildcats went on a 5-0 spurt to go in front 16-14 but the Cougars answered by winning four of five points to go back in front 18-17.

WSU then went on a 4-0 run to push its lead to 22-18 and later finished off its 2-0 weekend on a block assist at the right side of the net from Jehlarova and Ryan to win the fourth, 25-20.

Up Next:
The Cougars will then return home after the weekend to prepare for a stretch of four home matches in seven days as it closes out the regular season from Bohler Gym starting with Utah and Colorado on Friday Nov. 18 and Sunday Nov. 20, respectively.  Washington State will then turn around to host a Tuesday matchup with UCLA on Nov. 22 before its season finale on Friday, Nov. 25, against 20th-ranked Washington.

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