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Season Ends For Dawgs In NCAA Round One

by gohuskies.com
Dec 2, 2022

SEATTLE – A challenging season had a tough, sooner-than-hoped-for end today as the eighth-seeded Huskies were beaten in the first round of the NCAA Championships today by TCU in a match at Wisconsin's UW Field House. Six seniors who have meant an immense amount to the program took the court together tonight for the final time, as UW finished its season with a 20-11 record.
 
The Huskies were making their 21st consecutive NCAA tournament appearance, and had reached at least the second round in all previous twenty, but tonight the Horned Frogs played cleaner and earned the 25-18, 24-26, 25-20, 25-21 victory.

"TCU was every bit what I thought they could be," said Head Coach Keegan Cook. "Really aggressive and assertive, played an excellent serve and pass game, create some great plays defensively and took some big swings in trans. Really gave us all we could handle. Proud of our resilience and how we never stopped trying to push back and get in the match, but we ran out of chances. Good luck to the teams moving forward."
 
Seniors Dani Cole, Shannon Crenshaw, Marin Grote, Claire Hoffman, Sianna Houghton, and Ella May Powell will move on from the program leaving a legacy of 112 wins, two Pac-12 titles, five NCAA tournament appearances, four Sweet Sixteens, two Elite Eights, and a Final Four.
 
"The most important thing is the totality of who they've become," said Cook on his senior class. "They are our greatest success. They came on at a time of some uncertainty as a very large class, and accepted the responsibility of keeping this program at a high level and taking it to new heights. Just an incredible journey that they've been on.
 
"I tell people often that when you get to a certain level of commitment, words feel cheap. These players have reached that level of commitment. I'm excited to be their fans for life, it's been the greatest honor to be their coach."
 
Powell had 43 assists in her Husky finale, while Grote had 11 kills and hit .450 with four blocks. Hoffman added 12 kills and two aces. Crenshaw put away seven kills and had eight digs, while Houghton had six digs in her last match.
 
In the postmatch press conference, Crenshaw was able to reflect on her time. "It's about the people of the program," she said. "So some of the biggest moments are just how we came together as a team in difficult situations in years past and this season in particular we had a lot of adversity thrown our way, but we never gave up, we always kept putting a foot forward and taking the situation we had and trying to make the best of every moment we had together."
 
In a positive sign of things to come, Emoni Bush had 15 kills to lead the Dawgs, and had five blocks, teaming with sophomore Sophie Summers on many of those. Summers had six blocks and five kills. Lauren Bays had 16 digs.
 

 
SET ONE: The first point of the tourney for the Dawgs was an ace from Emoni Bush. Crenshaw got UW's first kill for 2-1, but then TCU scored three to make it 2-4. Grote hammered her first kill on the slide for 4-5. Summers terminated in serve-receive for 7-8 Frogs. But then three straight for the Frogs made it 7-11 and UW used its first timeout. Bush and Summers had a block out of the break to stop the run. Grote had a solo block in the middle for 10-13. Grote added two more kills as the Dawgs remained down three at 12-15. Two blocks for the Dawgs, with Summers in on both, helped cut a five-point gap down to three at 15-18, and then Powell dropped in an ace for 16-18. A big swing from Hoffman made it 18-20, but TCU had a crucial block on the next rally and followed with a kill for 18-22, and UW took time. Out of the break, the Huskies challenged for a touch call on an out of bounds swing, but it was not successful. Another TCU block made it set point at 18-24. TCU finished the next rally to close the set on a 5-0 run and take it, 25-18.
 
The Huskies hit just .083 in the first set and made four service errors, while TCU hit .200 and did not miss a serve. Grote had four kills on six swings with a block.
 
SET TWO: Grote tipped for a kill and then Hoffman fired an ace to start set two on a positive. Hoffman connected out of the back row for 5-3 Dawgs. TCU tied it at 7-7 but Hoffman found the floor to regain the lead. TCU hit two shots out but UW gave them the points with blocking errors, with UW getting clean kills from Grote and Bush to answer and keep it tied at 11-11. Down one, UW tied it on a Hoffman blast and then went up, 13-12, on a stuff from Summers and Bush. Bush finished and then Summers put one down for 15-13 at the media timeout. The teams kept trading two point runs, with one for the Dawgs on kills by Crenshaw and Powell making it 19-17 and forcing a TCU timeout. Hoffman fired an ace and then Bush finished in transition to push the lead to 22-18 and force the last Frogs timeout. TCU got one out of the break, but Grote hit down a deflection that hung above the net for 23-19. Bush got UW to set point at 24-20, but TCU then managed to save all four of the Husky set points to tie it at 24-all. It was nearly a fifth-straight point, but TCU went in the net while going to hit down a Husky overpass. That gave UW a fifth set point, and this time UW closed it out with a huge block from Summers to win it, 26-24.
 
The Dawgs upped their offense to .400 in the second set, with five kills apiece from Bush and Hoffman and three more from Grote.
 
SET THREE: TCU scored the first three points of the third set, but UW got the next two on kills from Grote and Bush. Bush had two more kills but a TCU ace helped it to a 4-6 lead. Down 5-9, the Huskies had a 3-0 run with consecutive kills by Hoffman to get within one. But TCU then answered with a 3-0 run of its own, blocking UW twice more, to get back up four at 8-12 and the Huskies took time. TCU had three more blocks to make it a seven-point gap at 10-17 and UW used its last timeout. The gap hit 10 points before the Huskies had a 4-1 run to creep closer at 14-21. But TCU sided out to reach set point at 16-24. Washington had a last gasp run of four-straight points, with Grote blocking two in a row, for 20-24, but after a TCU timeout, the Frogs got the final kill to end it, 20-25. TCU had a huge eight blocks in the third set to hold the Huskies to just .029 on offense.
 
SET FOUR: Summers finished a long rally with a kill to open the must-win fourth, but TCU scored four of the next five. Hoffman struck from the back row for 4-5. Bush ended a back and forth by dropping one down for 6-7. Crenshaw made a brilliant play, pancaking a serve that caught the tape and fell, then getting up to tip the attack to an open spot for the kill for 7-8. Crenshaw had a right side finish and then Grote hit down an overpass off a Crenshaw serve to tie it at 10-all. A TCU error then gave the Dawgs the lead, but TCU reclaimed it quickly with a 4-0 run for 11-14. Grote ended that with a slide kill for 12-14. Bush tipped for a kill and followed that up with a strong swing for another kill to make it 15-16. Summers converted a quick for 16-17, but then TCU ran off four straight to open it back up to 16-21. Hoffman rolled one into the corner to end that streak, but TCU fired right back with a serve-receive kill. Grote had a block and then Hoffman tooled the block for 19-22 to force a TCU timeout. The Frogs scored in serve-receive out of the break with Grote then crushing one for 20-23. TCU scored to reach match point, and the teams traded serve errors to end it, 21-25.
 
TCU hit .405 in the final set compared to .244 for the Huskies. Five Huskies all had three kills apiece in the last set.

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