University of Washington
Oklahoma
Hot-Hitting Dawgs Get Big Road Win Over Sooners
September 19, 2015 | Volleyball
SEATTLE – The Huskies were expecting, and received, a very big challenge in their final match before Pac-12 play hits, and No. 7 Washington proved up to the test, putting away a tough Oklahoma team in four sets at OU's McCasland FieldHouse. The Huskies (10-0) lost their first set of the season, but stayed steady and finished off a 25-19, 23-25, 25-13, 25-22 win, hitting an excellent .402 for the match.
Washington will head into Pac-12 play with an undefeated record for the seventh year in a row. The Huskies visit Washington State next Thursday, Sept. 24, for the Pac-12 opener.
Coming into the match averaging an NCAA-best .378 attack percentage, Washington was even better against a tough Sooners team that reached the NCAA tournament last year. The Huskies hit .444 in the first set, .565 in the third, and .389 in the fourth to close it out.
Head Coach Keegan Cook said the Huskies were ready to face some adversity tonight and he liked how the players responded to it. “We're leaving Oklahoma with exactly what we came for,” said Cook. “The one thing that was most consistent is we passed ourselves into good positions and that let us keep siding out at a really good rate, we sided out at 71-percent for the match, and usually when you do that you're not in a battle to almost go five. But credit the setters and passers doing their job to get us into good positions.”
Katy Beals and Bailey Tanner each had season-highs in assists, as Beals had 30 and Tanner collected 24. Every Husky hitter hit over .300 tonight in another well-balanced attack. Sophomore Courtney Schwan had a season- and career-best 16 kills, hitting .467 and she added 11 digs for her second double-double. Sophomore Tia Scambray also had a double-double with 13 kills and 14 digs, hitting .400.
Senior Melanie Wade matched her career-high with 11 kills, hitting .400 with a team-high seven blocks. Wade was hitting just .100 after the second set, but was 7-for-10 over the final two sets, including the final two kills of the match for the Dawgs. Sophomore Carly DeHoog had seven kills without an error on 16 swings to hit .438 and she had a career-best six blocks. Sophomore Crissy Jones hit .333 with nine kills, four digs and two blocks, and senior Lianna Sybeldon hit .308 with six kills and four blocks.
Washington led Oklahoma in kills (62-52), aces (5-3), digs (53-38), and blocks (13.0-7.0).
“The only thing that happened in that second set was we hit five balls out of bounds, the other sets we only hit two out of bounds,” Cook said. “We think we're a good volleyball team so we want to play long rallies and win long rallies and you do that by keeping the ball in play. We got that taken care of so the third set was really good, but the fourth set we had to battle again. Oklahoma made some changes and we had to adjust and the girls did a good job of adjusting.”
Wade got the match started with a kill from Beals, with the teams trading points to 4-4, where the Huskies used a Schwan kill, a solo stuff from Scambray, and a Sooners error to build a 7-4 lead and force the Sooners to take time. Oklahoma rallied with a 7-2 run that made it 9-11 Sooners, but DeHoog put one away to stem the tide. But OU twice opened up three-point leads, the last coming at 11-14. A stuff from DeHoog and Sybeldon sparked the Dawgs on a run, with Jones killing an overpass and Sybeldon and Schwan posting another stuff. A Tanner ace put the Dawgs up 15-14 and prompted the Oklahoma timeout. Sybeldon got one to fall and then she and Jones combined on two straight stuffs to make it 19-15 Dawgs. Senior Kim Condie checked in and immediately served up an ace for 21-16, and then had a dig on the next play that resulted in a Scambray kill. Wade and Scambray had a roof to bring up set point at 24-17. The Sooners saved a couple set points, but DeHoog closed it out, putting away a tough swing from the left pin on a Strickland bump set from behind. UW hit .444 overall to take the set, 25-19, holding Oklahoma to a .129 attack percentage, as seven of OU's nine errors came via Husky blocks. Overall, from 11-14 down, the Huskies finished the set on a 14-5 run.
Washington picked up right where it left off in set one with a rejection of Oklahoma's first swing by DeHoog and Wade. Scambray spun one short to the left sideline, and then Schwan converted twice in transition off Beals sets for an early 4-1 lead. Oklahoma took five of the next seven to tie it up at 6-6, but Sybeldon found open space to get the lead back. The Huskies sailed a couple swings long as Oklahoma took its first lead of the set at 9-10. A Sooners block put the Huskies in a 10-13 hole. A rightside finish from DeHoog got UW back within one at 13-14. The teams traded points but Oklahoma pushed back up three at 16-19 on a block and UW called timeout. Oklahoma missed serve, but UW gave it right back. Scambray and Schwan collected kills from opposite pins, but the Dawgs still trailed 19-23. Sybeldon got a kill in serve-receive, then Schwan won a joust above the net to get to 21-23 and force an OU timeout. The Sooners got the sideout to get to set point at 21-24, but Schwan tipped deep for a kill, and on the next rally, Scambray lit up a swing from the left for a kill to cut it to 23-24 and OU called time again. The Schwan serve threw OU out of system, but Kierra Holst got a swing out of the back row and beat the UW triple block for a kill to hand the Huskies their first set loss of the season, 23-25. The Huskies hit .278 in the set but Oklahoma was better at .333. Scambray had a great set with five kills on seven swings with just one error.
Consecutive kills from Scambray and Wade set the tone for the third set, and a solo rejection by DeHoog made it 4-1 Huskies and OU called a quick timeout, not wanting to see UW regain the momentum so quickly. But the Huskies kept siding out every time the Sooners scored, and after swapping a few points, Scambray and Wade teamed up for a stuff to make it 9-5 Dawgs. Another 3-0 Husky run started with a Sooner service miss, then Beals set Wade in transition for a kill, and Beals dropped her next serve short to the floor for an ace and Oklahoma burned its last timeout at 12-6. DeHoog had a left pin kill and then rotated to the right and killed the next point as well for a 14-7 lead. Wade and DeHoog then stuffed the Sooners swing, and moments later Schwan showed her one-two punch of rolling one to the floor then pounding one to the sideline on consecutive points, as UW extended it to 17-8. Schwan ended a back-and-forth rally with a right side slam, then ran back to serve and dropped in an ace for 20-11. Jones had three swings on one rally and found the exclamation point on the last one to keep UW heading towards the finish. Wade took something off for a kill to get UW a bushel of set points at 24-13. Washington closed it out on its first chance, with Beals getting two big digs and Scambray finishing from the left for 25-13. The Huskies killed 15 of their 23 swings in the set with just two errors for a .565 attack percentage, and limited the Sooners to .192. Schwan killed all four of her swings and Wade put away all three of hers.
In set four, Scambray served up an ace on the third point of the fourth set for a 2-1 lead, but Oklahoma took the next three until Schwan tooled the block for one kill then used a change up for another to even it back up, 4-4. The set was tied again at 7-7, but the Dawgs then jumped ahead with a 6-1 run, three points coming on Condie's service. Jones tipped from the left for a kill, then Schwan's tough serve forced an Oklahoma error for a 9-7 lead. Schwan had a big dig that let Tanner set Scambray for a crosscourt kill then Jones hammered on the right to make it 13-8. But just as UW looked to pull away, Oklahoma came back with three in a row to cut it to 13-11 and the Huskies called time. The Sooners got one more before serving long for 14-12. Wade and Schwan picked up kills to keep the Sooners at bay, but Oklahoma got it tied back up for the first time since 4-4 at 18-all. Jones answered with a rocket from the left, then Sybeldon blasted another in serve-receive for 20-19, but OU answered with a block against Scambray. Undaunted, Scambray crushed her next swing off the defense and out for 21-20, and OU shanked its next swing out for 22-20 and the Sooners took time. After a tough Beals serve, Wade and DeHoog got over for a crucial block to make it a three-point cushion. After a wild rally, Wade got the feed in the middle from Beals and put it down to get UW to match point at 24-21, and the Sooners called timeout once more. Oklahoma saved the first match point with a kill in serve-receive, but a perfect pass from Scambray let Beals find Wade for one last hammer, capping the victory, 25-22. Washington outhit the Sooners in the fourth, .389 to .267. Schwan, Wade, and Jones all had four kills in the set, and Scambray and Strickland each had five digs.
