Dawgs Drop Regular Season Finale In Five Sets

Saturday, November 24

Pullman, WA

4:00 PM

University of Washington

18-12 (10-10Pac-12)

Washington State

21-9 (12-8Pac-12)

Washington

Washington State

Photo by: Red Box Pictures

November 24, 2018 | Volleyball

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By: UW Athletic Communications

PULLMAN, Wash. – The 19th-ranked Husky volleyball team had a microcosm of its regular season in the final match before the tournament today, playing some extremely high level volleyball, but at other times making too many errors to beat a quality team. In the end the mistakes were too many, as UW fell in five sets at 20th-ranked Washington State in Bohler Gym.

With the 25-14, 16-25, 25-21, 18-25, 15-10 defeat, the Huskies finish the regular season at 18-12 and 10-10 in Pac-12 play, tying for sixth in the conference standings. The Dawgs will learn their NCAA tournament fate tomorrow at 5:30 p.m. during the NCAA Selection Show on ESPNU. Washington expects to make the tourney for a 17th-straight year and will get a chance to write a better ending to their season.

The loss snapped an eight-match winning streak for the Dawgs in Pullman, their last loss in Bohler coming back in 2009. The Huskies and Cougars split the season series this year, both teams winning five setters on their home courts.

The Huskies hit .161 for the match and that was factoring in a second set where UW was phenomenal, hitting .625. Washington State (21-9, 12-8 Pac-12) hit just .176 as well, as the teams traded big blocks and dug in for a number of marathon rallies. Both teams finished with 14.5 blocks. UW had one more kill, 57 to 56, while the Cougars had an edge in aces (6-4) and digs (79-74).

Washington got a 20 kill effort from junior Kara Bajema as she hit .240, but she was the only Husky hitter above the .200 mark. Samantha Drechsel had 15 kills, hitting .184, and Claire Hoffman had 10 and hit .111. No other Husky had more than four kills.

Ella May Powell had 44 assists and 15 digs with four blocks and three kills on three attempts and a pair of aces. Shayne McPherson led the back row with 19 digs and added two aces.

SET 1: To open the first set, Hoffman had a couple kills for the Huskies but also three errors, and the Huskies called the first timeout, trailing 3-6. Sanders hammered a slide for a kill out of the timeout. Bajema was aced and then blocked on the next point as the Huskies fell behind five, at 5-10. Washington made its seventh error in 17 points to go down 5-12 and take their second timeout. Out of the break, Bajema scored a couple in a row to get the Huskies moving and then Powell dropped in an ace for 8-12. But that run was short-lived, as Washington State scored four of the next five to go back up seven points again. Another 3-0 WSU run made it 10-19 before Drechsel found some tempo on the right for a kill for 11-19. The Dawgs had no runs in the late stages, dropping the set, 14-25, finishing with nine kills and nine errors in the set.

SET 2: Bajema had three kills on the first four points of the second set to get the Huskies up 3-1 early. Powell had a solo block and then Bajema rolled one up the line for 5-3 Dawgs. Drechsel pounded two straight kills to make it 8-5 Dawgs, and then McPherson served an ace for 10-6. Hoffman had a kill in transition off the block for 12-7. Sanders had a solo stuff and Bajema wiped a tight set off the block for a kill to make it 15-10 Dawgs at the media timeout. A nice soft block led to a Bajema kill for 17-11 Dawgs, and then a WSU error made it 18-11 and WSU called time. The Dawgs kept rolling out of the timeout with two more Bajema spikes, and then a Powell ace for 21-11 and WSU had to take timeout again. Drechsel then lit up WSU for three kills in a row to bring the Dawgs to set point at 13-24. The Cougars saved three chances but Drechsel broke through the block on the fourth try to end it, 25-16. In a complete reversal from set one, the Huskies hit a scorching .625 in the second set, as Bajema had eight kills on 10 swings without an error to hit .800 and Drechsel had six kills, hitting .750.

SET 3: A tough Maria Bogomolova served forced a free ball and Avie Niece finished for 2-1 Dawgs to start the third. But Washington then surrendered five straight points and had to take timeout trailing 2-6. Bajema found a sharp angle out of the timeout but the Dawgs missed out on a block by touching the net and the Cougars then scored twice more to extend to a six-point lead. The Huskies had an apparent overpass kill but Drechsel was called for hitting the net and after another Husky error, their fifth of the set, UW used its last timeout at 4-12. The Dawgs scored three straight on a Niece kill and a Hoffman kill off an overpass. Sanders and Powell teamed for a block to cut it to five points at 9-14. Another 3-0 Husky run cut it to four points at 12-16, but Hoffman then missed serve and Sanders hit out on UW's first swing on the next point for 12-18. Bajema had a solo rejection of a WSU slide attempt for 14-19. Drechsel then followed that with a solo stuff of her own on the right pin. Bajema finished after a Powell dig and a McPherson bump set for 16-19 and the Cougars called their first timeout. The Cougars got a quick kill out of the break, but Drechsel responded off the block for 17-20. WSU pushed back ahead with a 3-0 run with two straight blocks. Hoffman got a tip to fall for 18-23, then McPherson tallied an ace, but WSU got the next kill for set point at 19-24. Washington saved one in one of the longest rallies of the match, ended by a Sanders and Drechsel block. Powell saved the second with a dump for a kill for 21-24, but WSU converted in serve-receive on the next point for the 21-25 win. Despite the late rally, the Huskies hit just .057 in the set while the Cougars finished at .154.

SET 4: WSU scored the first three points of the fourth set before Drechsel put one away. Drechsel and Niece then blocked two in a row down for 3-3. Hoffman got the most of a roof and then put one off the block and out for 6-6. A block sent down by Sanders and Powell gave the Dawgs their first lead at 7-6. Sanders killed a slide and tapped down an overpass two-points later for 10-9. Another big stuff from Bajema and Niece made it 13-11 Huskies. A pair of kills from Drechsel got the Huskies to the media timeout leading 15-13. The teams both dug in to play several long, physical rallies, as Bajema capped a wild rally with a kill followed shortly by a Powell dump and a rejection from Sanders and Powell to force a WSU timeout at 18-15. Bajema crushed one up the line and a WSU miss made it 20-16 and the Cougars called another timeout. Niece and Drechsel collected one big block on the right pin and then Drechsel went solo at the same spot to get the Dawgs to set point at 24-18. UW only needed one shot as Drechsel hammered from the right to end it, 25-18, as the Dawgs closed on a 4-0 run. Washington cleaned it up again offensively, with 13 kills and just three errors to hit .294 in the set and UW stuffed down eight blocks in the fourth set alone, holding WSU to .023.

SET 5: The Cougars hit out on the first point of the fifth but scored the next two before Niece tied it with a kill off the block and out. Niece had another kill on a quick for 4-4, but the Dawgs then gave up three straight points to fall behind, 5-8, at the media timeout. The Dawgs then got blocked twice in a row as it became a 4-0 Cougar run before Hoffman ended it up the line for 6-10. Another Cougar block made it a six-point gap at 6-12. Sanders had a kill on a slide and the Cougars missed one long for 8-12, but Emma Calle's next serve found the net, and despite sideouts from Bajema and Drechsel, the Cougars put their chances away in serve-receive to end it, 15-10. The Dawgs had six kills and six errors to hit .000 in the fifth but the blocks all went WSU's way in the last set as they put down four and UW had none.