Huskies Head To Pac-12 Play With Win Over Sooners

Friday, September 16

Los Angeles, CA

5:00 PM

University of Washington

10-0

Oklahoma

9-4

Washington

Oklahoma

September 16, 2016 | Volleyball

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By: UW Athletic Communications

LOS ANGELES – The Huskies got a final test before diving into Pac-12 play, and passed it tonight at the Galen Center, knocking off Oklahoma (9-4) in four sets to finish nonconference play at 10-0. Fifth-ranked Washington dropped the second set, but came out of the intermission playing with high energy and focus to put away the Sooners, 25-17, 21-25, 25-15, 25-15.

The Dawgs were led by their junior trio of outsides, as Courtney Schwan connected for a match-high 17 kills on a .424 attack percentage plus eight digs and two aces. Crissy Jones filled up the stat sheet with 15 kills, hitting .306, and adding three aces and seven blocks. Tia Scambray also put away 13 kills with an ace and 14 digs for a double-double.

Washington's nine service aces was a season-high. Freshman Kara Bajema also served a pair of those aces and hit .600 with six kills on 10 swings, and seven blocks with five digs. The last ace came from Shayne McPherson, who posted 14 digs to share team-high honors with Scambray.

The Huskies outhit one of the nation's top-hitting teams coming into the weekend, as UW finished at .310 compared to .185 for the Sooners. Bailey Tanner went over the 50 assist mark for the second time in her career, but second in the last three matches, as she finished with 51. She had 56 in the five-set win over Hawaii last Sunday. Avie Niece also had four kills and added five blocks, as the Huskies posted 14.0 blocks for the second day in a row. Carly DeHoog also had a nice run subbing in as she had three kills on four swings with a block.

"We were losing some match-ups at the net, both offensively and defensively. I thought Oklahoma was doing an outstanding job," said Head Coach Keegan Cook on the end of the second set. "So we challenged the team to execute a little better and they did, and they did it with really good enthusiasm, so fun to watch them play like that in those last two sets."

The Huskies will now return home for the start of Pac-12 play, as the rival Washington State Cougars come to town to kick things off this coming Wednesday, Sept. 21, with a 7:00 p.m. start time. Washington finished nonconference play without a blemish on its record for the eighth year in a row.

"We're ready for some more great, close matches in conference," said Cook. "Our defense has come along, and our serving looked good tonight. We've been learning at a frenetic pace, and it's here, it's time to go, so the first week's going to be gnarly right off the bat."

After posting 14 blocks on Thursday, the Dawgs picked up an early block from Jones and Bajema, with Jones then posting a rightside kill and then serving two straight aces for a quick 5-2 lead. Scambray and Schwan picked up their first kills on the left as the Huskies built an early cushion. A Sooner dig above the net was spiked down by Schwan for 10-4 and Oklahoma took time. A long rally out of the break was kept alive with a tough dig by Bajema and Schwan terminated for 11-4. Oklahoma pulled back to within four points, but a tip kill from Jones was followed by a block put up by Scambray and Niece to get back to 14-8. Scambray tooled the block on the left for 15-9. Bajema and Scambray stuffed another Sooner swing for a 16-9 lead. Bajema then slid over to the right pin and teamed with Jones for a second-straight block. An ace for McPherson made it a 4-0 run and a 18-9 edge. Tanner set back to Jones on the right out of the back row for a blast that fell for 20-11, and then Bajema put away a slide for 21-12. Schwan banged off the block on the left and added another on the right side moments later to keep the Dawgs moving towards the finish. Scambray got UW to set point with a kill off high hands, and Avie Niece slammed down a quick set from Tanner to end it at 25-17. Washington hit an excellent .483 with Bailey Tanner getting 15 assists. Schwan killed six of her seven swings to hit .857 and Scambray hit .625 with five kills on eight swings.

Destiny Julye checked in to start set two and picked up an early kill, but the Sooners won four of the first five points until Bajema connected in serve-receive for 2-4. Jones fired her third ace to shave another off the gap. Oklahoma scored a couple to get back to a 4-7 lead and the Huskies called for time. Tanner and Bajema snapped the Sooner run with a block for 5-8. A rejection straight down from Jones earned one back for 7-9. Oklahoma responded with two straight blocks of its own to go back up five points until Jones found the far corner from the left. A couple big swings from Scambray on the left had the Huskies hanging around down 11-14. A low floating ace from Bajema made it 14-17 and the Sooners took their first timeout. Out of the break, Oklahoma sailed one long to bring UW within two. Schwan had one big swing dug up and back above the net and she tapped it down for 16-18. The teams traded sideouts and UW called its last timeout at 17-20. It was Oklahoma though that scored two out of the break for 17-22 before Jones got a kill on the right. Tanner back set to Jones again in serve-receive for 20-23, but Oklahoma put away the next point for set point at 20-24. Oklahoma served wide on the first, but then killed in serve-receive to take the set, 21-25. The Sooners heated up to hit .349 in the second set, getting 21 digs after only having 10 in set one.

The Huskies turned back the first two Sooner swings in set three for a 2-0 lead, but by Jones and Niece on the right pin. Schwan then served up an ace for 3-0 and Oklahoma quickly called timeout. Out of the break, Jones converted in transition for a fourth-straight point, and Niece added a fifth on a quick from Tanner. Scambray kept the run going by hanging long enough to stuff down a tip attempt for 6-0, then Schwan dialed up a second ace in the run. A tough swing from Bajema from off the net in the middle went down for 9-2. A dump from Tanner helped stop a mini Sooner run and make it 14-6, and Bajema then lined another ace for 15-6. The Husky lead hit 10 points at 17-7 on a Sooner error. Carly DeHoog subbed in for the first time and immediately killed her first swing on the left from Tanner for 18-9. She added another on the right off the head of the blocker and way long back on UW's side. Scambray stepped inside the court to hammer one up the line for 21-13. A diving pancake from McPherson let Schwan go off the hands for another kill. The Dawgs finished it off with Schwan's fourth kill of the set, up the line on the left, to clinch it 25-15. The Huskies were back up to .303 in the set and cooled the Sooners back down to .100.

A hard swing from Scambray rattled the block and fell for the first point of set four. Bajema crushed a slide set from Tanner for a 3-2 lead. UW turned that into a 4-0 run with a dump from Tanner a block from Bajema and then a nice swing from Schwan high off the blockers' hands for a 6-2 lead, forcing Oklahoma to take time. Out of the break, Scambray came right out and dialed up an ace to make it 7-2 and Scambray added one more with another tough float that led to a Sooner error before her next serve just found the net. Oklahoma cut the Husky lead in half to 9-6, but Schwan put one away in serve-receive and then Jones had a nice block touch that led to her own kill on the right to get to 11-6. Jones crushed another crosscourt and then ended a long rally with a rejection paired with Niece and Oklahoma had to take its last timeout at 13-6. The Dawgs added one more out of the break as Schwan rolled over and down after getting a nice block touch on the Sooner slide attempt. Oklahoma rallied with a 4-0 run but Jones got the sideout on the left side and then DeHoog blocked the Sooner swing on the right. DeHoog put another away that was hanging above the net to cap a 3-0 Husky run for 17-10. Scambray and Jones had consecutive kills on the left and right pins, respectively, for 19-11. Tanner and Bajema threw up a big block to keep UW on track to the finish, and Bajema hammered another slide for match point at 24-14. On UW's second chance, Schwan ended a back-and-forth with an offspeed roll into open space to end it, 25-15. The Huskies were on target again in the fourth, hitting .406 and holding Oklahoma to just .065 in the final frame. Schwan put down five kills on nine swings in the set and McPherson dug six balls.