Volleyball Takes 3-1 Win at Arizona

Saturday, September 23

Tucson, Ariz.

6:00 PM

Washington State University

12-2, 1-1Pac-12

Arizona

7-4, 1-1Pac-12

Washington State

Arizona

September 23, 2017 | Volleyball

Box Score

By: Washington State Athletic Communications

WHO WHAT WHEN WHERE…
PULLMAN, Wash. -- Led by the 16 kills of Taylor Mims, the Washington State volleyball team evened its Pac-12 record to 1-1 and advanced its overall record to 12-2 with a 25-22, 25-21, 24-26, 25-17 win over Arizona (7-4, 1-1) at the McKale Center in Tucson Saturday evening.

Mims also had three aces, eight digs and one block. McKenna Woodford and Jocelyn Urias each had 10 kills with Urias hitting an outstanding .556 with no errors in 18 attacks for her career-high kills total. Ella Lajos also played without a hitting error with seven kills on 13 attacks for a .538 hitting percentage. Ashley Brown had 26 assists and Penny Tusa added 14 assists. Alexis Dirige led the match with 20 digs and served a pair of aces. Urias and Claire Martin each had match-high four blocks.

WSU out-blocked the Wildcats nine to 4.5 and served six aces to Artizona's two. The home team out-hit the Cougars 56 to 53 and out-dug WSU 54 to 48. WSU hit .234 for the match and Arizona hit .212.

WHY & HOW...
WSU Head Coach Jen Greeny said, "I'm definitely happy with the win but again I don't think we are as consistent as we need to be. There are a lot of streaks that seem to be happening and are either good for us or not so good for us. We need to clean that up if we expect to win more matches in the Pac-12.

"Any team in the Pac-12 is going to have a lot of weapons and we have to be more consistent. I wasn't real happy with our block tonight even though we out-blocked them nine to four and a half. I think we can be a lot more disciplined and a lot better with our block defensively.

"We have to learn to adjust a little bit faster depending on tempo and they made a lot of subs so we need to get used to whatever speed that our opponent is going at.

"Both our middles, Jocelyn and Ella, were fantastic and our setters did a nice job getting them the ball. We want to work on just getting that consistency so we can pass better and get them more attempts."

Redshirt sophomore middle blocker Jocelyn Urias said, "I'm getting more used to the setters and they worked really hard this match to give us the ball. As middles we get set the least, so when I do get set, I know I need to terminate! I really focused on being aggressive and transitioning hard every ball."

Alexis Dirige digs it back and makes Wildcats think twice! #GoCougs pic.twitter.com/DXLYCFQwbJ
— Cougar Volleyball (@wsuvolleyball) September 24, 2017

McKenna Woodford and Jocelyn Urias join for the 5th Block of the match for Cougs leading 20-18 #WinTheDay #GoCougs pic.twitter.com/9g0qDePbwo
— Cougar Volleyball (@wsuvolleyball) September 24, 2017

Taylor Mims serves her 2nd Ace of the match. #RiseAgain #GoCougs pic.twitter.com/CHzFG9p7fo
— Cougar Volleyball (@wsuvolleyball) September 24, 2017

NOTES…

Arizona hit .167 for first set but WSU won in spite of .152 hitting percentage
There were 27 ties and 14 lead changes in the match. In the second set Arizona tied WSU twice but never led.
Both the first and second sets ended with Arizona service errors; they had 10 in the match.
WSU had a 19-14 lead in third set when Arizona out-scored the Cougs 7 to 1 for 21-20 lead.
Cougars will be on the road for the fifth of six weekends next week; six of eight matches in October will be played at home in Bohler Gym.
WSU is 31st in this week's AVCA Coaches Poll.
Attendance: 1,752

MARK YOUR CALENDAR…
Washington State (12-2, 1-1) travels to Los Angeles for a pair of afternoon contests next weekend: at USC (9-3, 1-0 pending 9/24 vs. Oregon State) Sat., Sept. 30 at 1 p.m. at the Galen Center, and at UCLA (8-3, 1-1 pending 9/29 vs. Washington) Sun., Oct. 1 at 1 p.m. in Pauley Pavilion.