University of Washington
Murray State
Huskies Finish Off Racers To Cap Double-Header
September 05, 2015 | Volleyball
SEATTLE – After rolling to a 3-0 win earlier in the day, the seventh-ranked Husky volleyball team kept up the pace in the second match of its home opening double-header, taking out the Murray State Racers, 25-18, 25-8, 25-11. The Racers (3-1) were an NCAA tourney team a year ago and picked to repeat in their conference, but Washington (5-0) was too tough in the serve-receive game and posted a .411 attack percentage to impress the 1,080 fans in attendance.
Earlier this afternoon, UW swept to a win against Buffalo in its official home opener. Washington will now have a tough exhibition battle on Saturday night against the Canadian National Team with first serve at 7 p.m.
Hear Mel's thoughts on the win tonight. The senior had 10 kills and hit .625! pic.twitter.com/1wh4geuA2K
— UW Volleyball (@UWVolleyball) September 5, 2015
Senior Melanie Wade was one kill off her career-high tonight, as she had 10 on 16 swings without an error to hit .625 tonight. Her compatriot in the middle, Liana Sybeldon, also hit .636 with seven kills and no errors on 11 swings. On the pins, Courtney Schwan had 10 kills (.381 Att%), Crissy Jones had seven (.294 Att%) and Tia Scambray had five kills and added three aces and 10 digs, hitting .385.
Pac-12 Libero of the Year Cassie Strickland had 14 digs and helped UW get into its offense with strong passing, alongside Scambray and Schwan. Setters Katy Beals and Bailey Tanner had 20 and 14 assists, respectively.
Head Coach Keegan Cook said the Huskies improved over the course of the two matches, and said that was very important to the team. “This morning I didn't think we were the serve-and-passing team we need to be,” said Cook. “But tonight against an impressive serve-and-pass team in MurrayState, we were ourselves for a long period of time. We served the ball tremendously well and we passed the ball really well, which allowed us to do what we wanted on offense.”
In the first set, Wade picked up a couple early kills set up by Beals as the teams were even through six points. Sybeldon rotated in and tipped her first attempt for a kill and a 5-3 lead. Sophomore Carly DeHoog collected a couple kills and then Scambray put one down in transition to build a 9-5 lead. A fourth kill in the early going for Wade kept the Huskies up three at 12-9. Sybeldon was present for a solo roof in the middle of the net for 14-10. The Huskies produced several big digs and capped a couple long rallies with kills from DeHoog and Scambray, prompting a MurrayState timeout at 16-11. Scambray capped another rally out of the break with a crosscourt blast after a great dig from Bailey Tanner to make it 17-11. The Racers snapped the three-point run, but UW answered with a thunderous block by Sybeldon and DeHoog. Another quick slam by Wade got the Huskies to twenty first at 20-14. A couple more Racer errors had UW up 22-14 and MSU took its last timeout. MurrayState rallied with three straight, but Courtney Schwan ended that with a slam up the line. Schwan and Sybeldon closed out the set with a block on the left, finishing it off at 25-18. The Huskies hit .371 in the set and had 20 big digs, with seven from Cassie Strickland. Wade had five kills on seven swings, hitting .714.
Early in set two, Crissy Jones tipped for a kill and then teamed with Wade for a stuff to make it 3-1. Wade then teamed with Schwan on the other side of the net to send another back for a 4-1 lead. Scambray served up UW's first ace of the night, and then another tough serve put MurrayState in trouble and Wade and Jones blocked another to keep the run going. Scambray served another ace, then she bump set Schwan for a kill and UW held a quick 8-1 lead, forcing MSU to take time. The run on Scambray's serve hit ten points after Jones tapped down an overpass to make it 11-1. MSU finally broke through with a kill, but Jones got the serve right back with a sharply-angled blast from the right. Sybeldon got the most of another swing to return it to sender and then she rolled a kill down to make it 15-2. MSU continued to struggle with overpasses, as Sybeldon killed another hanging above the net for a 17-3 lead as the Racers took their last time. Tanner floated an ace straight to the floor out of the break. The Huskies marched on to set point with a Scambray kill and MSU made a back row error to bring the set to a close, 25-8. Washington was hitting on all cylinders with a .500 attack percentage in the set, with Scambray serving up three aces and adding four digs. Jones had four kills and three block assists.
The Huskies established a 5-2 lead with a three-point run early in the third as Schwan terminated twice in transition and then Jones hit one off the block on the right. A Sybeldon slam had the Huskies up 8-4. Wade dropped another tip over into the middle for a point for 12-8, and she followed that with a bigger wind-up, slamming one down for 14-9 and MSU called time. An ace from Wade was followed with a Racers overpass that Schwan put away off another tough Wade serve as UW doubled-up MSU, 20-10. Sybeldon and Schwan threw up a roof to keep Wade's serving run going, capping at eight in a row. Tanner set one up with one-hand for Sybeldon to slam to get to match point at 24-11, and Schwan ended it on the next rally with a kill over the blockers. The Huskies again were hot in the third, hitting .370 with Schwan netting five kills on a .500 percentage, and Beals dishing nine assists.
