Dawgs Enjoy Day At Beach With 3-1 Win

Thursday, September 19

Long Beach, CA

7:00 PM

University of Washington

9-0,0-0Big Ten

Long Beach State

4-4,0-0Big West

Washington

Long Beach St.

Photo by: Red Box Pictures

September 19, 2024 | Volleyball

Box Score Box Score PDF

By: UW Athletic Communications

LONG BEACH, Calif. – Madi Endsley and Emoni Bush had big nights on the attack, and Washington racked up a season-high 10 aces to rally past Long Beach State tonight in the Walter Pyramid. It was the fourth-straight four-set victory for the Dawgs, who reached 9-0 with one more non-conference match remaining on Friday against Pepperdine.

The Huskies dropped the opening set but dominated sets two and four, and grabbed a tight set three. Final scores were 21-25, 25-11, 25-23, 25-16 in front of 1,231 fans.

Washington hit .261 tonight and held the Beach to a .143 mark. It's the eighth time in nine matches that the Dawgs have held their opponent under .200 attacking, and the sixth time they've held a team under .150.

While serving up a season-high 10 aces, UW also only surrendered one ace, a season-low. Audra Wilmes led the serving attack with four aces, and Julia Hunt also notched three aces.

Endsley and Bush both had double-digit kills while hitting over .400. Endsley finished with 13 kills on 23 swings and hit .435, while Bush had 12 kills on 25 swings and hit .400. Wilmes also added 10 kills on a .300 percentage and handled the most serves, 31, without an error.

A Walk-Off Block!

(Ira Thor voice) REACH OUT AAAAAAAND STUFF SOMEONE!!!

Katy Wessels gives @UWVolleyball set 4 25-16 and the match over Long Beach State. The Huskies remain unbeaten at 9-0 as they're back in action tomorrow against Pepperdine at Walter Pyramid. @IESportsRadio pic.twitter.com/1qvs2KH40L
— Set Point (@Set_PointIE) September 20, 2024

Up Next: The Huskies stay in Long Beach to face Pepperdine on a neutral court tomorrow at 3 p.m. UW will try and complete its first perfect non-conference campaign since the 2016 team.

Set One: Katy Wessels collected the first Husky kill on the third point of the match. Madi Endsley tied things up at 4-4. An Emoni Bush serve was overpassed and Endsley killed it as part of a 5-0 run to make it 7-4. Fletcher and Hunt teamed for the first UW block to make it 9-5. Hunt fired an ace and Wessels had a quick kill for 12-8, but the Dawgs then made a few errors and LBSU got right back even at 12-12. The teams stayed even for several rallies, with the Dawgs going back in front on Hunt's first kill followed by a put-away from Wessels for 20-19. But after a Beach timeout, Long Beach scored the next five points in a row to get to set point as the Huskies couldn't put the ball down. LBSU won it on its second set point, 25-21.

Washington hit just .156 in the set while LBSU finished at .293 with nine kills from Natalie Glenn.

Set Two: An Endsley kill and two Wilmes ace contributed to a 6-0 start in the second set for the Dawgs that forced the early Beach timeout. Bays had an ace and then Bush and Hunt rejected one to make it 9-1 Dawgs. Endsley had consecutive kills as the lead hit double figures at 12-2. Hunt fired an ace to force the last Beach timeout at 16-6. Wessels and Wilmes teamed for a block followed by an LBSU error for 19-7. Bush finished a Bays set to reach set point, and Hunt put away a quick from Haury to end the dominant set, 25-11.

UW clicked to a .350 percentage while Beach was in the negatives at -.074 and UW had a 4-0 aces advantage.

Set Three: Wilmes had a kill and then served back-to-back aces to start UW out strong at 4-1 in the third. Bush and Endsley added to their totals, but the Niners slowly worked back to even at 9-9. UW answered with a 3-0 run capped by a stuff block from Wessels and Bush for 12-9. Hunt put one down to keep UW up 15-13 at the media timeout. Wessels and Kiune Fletcher had a big block for 18-16, but LBSU went on a 3-0 run to take its first lead at 18-19. Wilmes ended the run with a kill and then Molly Wilson threw in an ace to force a Beach timeout at 20-19. Coach Gabriel won a key challenge to get Bush another kill for 21-20, then a Niners error made it 22-20 and they took their last timeout. Another error out of the break made it a three-point cushion. LBSU missed a serve to give UW set point at 24-22, and after they saved the first, LBSU missed serve once more to end it, 25-23.

The Huskies outhit the Beach in the third, .243 to .226, with four kills each from Endsley and Wilmes.

Set Four: Once again the Huskies jumped out with four of the first five points in the fourth set. UW had its own service error trouble to keep Beach within reach early, but then UW settled in on Endsley's serve, scoring four straight to push ahead to an 11-5 lead, with a Wilmes kill and a Hunt solo block in the stretch. Fletcher and Bush had kills on the right to keep UW siding out. Alexis Haury set Endsley up for a kill and then Fletcher and Hunt rejected one to force the last Beach timeout at 18-11. Out of the break it was Hunt and Wilmes on another stuff, then Endsley dialed up an ace to extend to 20-11. Hunt got her third ace with some help from the tape for 23-13, and Wilmes converted to get the Dawgs to match point at 24-15. LBSU saved one, but Bush and Wessels blocked back the next Beach swing to end it, 25-16.

Bush had six kills on seven swings without an error in the fourth set to hit .857 as UW hit .333 as a team and held Long Beach to just .037.