NCAA Womens Volleyball

Cougs down Blue Devils, 3-1, for season-opening win

Rider

PROVO, Utah – Jasmine Martin delivered a career-high seven blocks and Pia Timmer tallied 17 kills as Washington State volleyball (1-0) overcame a slow start to win its season opener, 3-1 (24-26, 25-14, 25-21, 25-20), over Duke (0-1) in the first of three matches at the BYU doTTERRA Classic at the Smith Fieldhouse.

Argentina Ung, playing her first match setting the Cougars’ offense, also hit a new career-best with five total blocks to go along with seven digs and 39 assists.  Katy Ryan added four total blocks and the Cougs out-hit Duke with 53 kills on 113 swings (.327) as a group.  Starting libero Karly Basham finished her season-opener with 15 digs while Julia Norville added another eight digs for the Cougs.

After dropping the opening set, the Cougars flipped the match with a dominant second set in which they went 11-of-15 on sideouts (73 percent) and hit .458 as a team (12-1-24).  Martin stepped into the lineup to fill in for a banged up Shea Rubright and helped lead a 10-2 run that put WSU ahead 15-5 early.  Martin tallied three blocks and the Cougs had four as a team in a 25-14 set to even the match.

Washington State bumped its offensive efficiency another notch in the third as they hit .519 (15-1-27) as a team to go ahead 2-1 in the match.  The Cougs used a 4-0 run to get ahead early in the fourth and never looked back, holding the Blue Devils to just .075 hitting (12-6-29) in the final frame.

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