Huskies Catch Fire For Home Opening Win

Thursday, September 8

Seattle, WA

7:30 PM

University of Washington

4-1,0-0Pac-12

Northwestern

7-1,0-0Big Ten

Northwestern

Washington

September 08, 2022 | Volleyball

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By: UW Athletic Communications

SEATTLE – Washington Volleyball's home opener was delayed by over thirty minutes by a prior match running long, and the Huskies then started a little late themselves. But once they got rolling, it was high-octane offense from sets two through four as the Huskies (4-1) gave Northwestern (7-1) its first loss of the season, 21-25, 25-23, 25-14, 25-22, at Alaska Airlines Arena.

The Dawgs hit a season-high .400 for the match and that was after posting a .212 mark in set one. From there the Dawgs hit .571 in the second, .435 in the third, and .464 in the fourth to fight off a late challenge from the Wildcats and avoid a fifth set.

It was a third-straight win against a Big Ten opponent, after the Huskies bested Iowa and Illinois last weekend in Colorado.

Senior All-American Claire Hoffman was deadly with 14 kills on a .407 attack percentage with a trio of aces. Senior All-American Marin Grote hit .562 with nine kills without an error, and she had the final two kills to put the match away from 23-22 to 25-22. Last but not least, senior All-American Ella May Powell had 42 assists, four kills and four blocks and spread the ball around.

After NU cut it to 23-22, Marin Grote took two runs in a row on the ??

First kill brought up match point, the next kill ended it!#PointHuskies pic.twitter.com/Tp80NFntHT
— Washington Volleyball (@UWVolleyball) September 9, 2022

"The first home match always comes with a lot and you try to prepare but we certainly were not where we needed to be in that first set. But as we often do, the response was outstanding," Head Coach Keegan Cook said. "The second and third kind of reminded me of the first set in our last match (vs. Illinois) where we're the team we are aspiring to be in terms of being great both sides of the ball. We did enough amidst some adjustments from Northwestern in the fourth."

Madi Endsley put away 12 kills, hitting .292 with two aces, while Emoni Bush tallied 10 kills on a .316 mark with two more aces. Sophie Summers hit .500 with eight kills and three blocks, and Olivia Mikkelsen led the team in digs for the first time in her career with seven.

UP NEXT: Washington plays its first of two double-headers this season on Friday, and will have to be up and ready early to take on 24th-ranked Pepperdine tomorrow at 11 a.m. Then UW closes out the opening home weekend at 7:30 p.m. tomorrow against Cal Poly.