Cougs fall in three at 10th-ranked BYU

PROVO, Utah — Pia Timmer tallied 14 kills and eight digs and Magda Jehlarova added eight kills, but Washington State volleyball (2-1) fell short in a 3-0 loss (25-18, 25-21, 25-15) at 10^th-ranked BYU (3-0) on Saturday night at the Smith Fieldhouse.

Timmer and Jehlarova were each named to the BYU doTERRA Classic All-Tournament team.

Washington State took early momentum with a 4-0 run to begin the match before BYU stole momentum with an 8-1 run of its own.  WSU went on to even the match at 13-13 but BYU pushed back in front with another 4-0 run and hit .486 with 17 kills as a team to take the opening set 25-18.

Washington State battled back in the a tight second set that saw nine lead changes and 18 ties.  WSU suffered from 12 errors in the set and were unable to push a lead any higher than two points, but the Cougars held onto a late lead as the set began to wind down after Argentina Ung set Katy Ryan to give them a 20-19 advantage. In a rowdy environment with a packed student section on the BYU campus, WSU suffered five errors down the stretch and BYU took a 2-0 lead after finishing on a 6-1 run to win the second set, 25-21.

Ung finished with 12 of her 30 assists in the match during the second set while Timmer and Jehlarova each tallied five kills in the set.

WSU went on to take an early lead for a third-straight set but were unable to get balls past BYU, finishing the third with a .143 hitting percentage (9-5-28)….