Home-Court Advantage – Washington State University Athletics

As a past player for the Washington State volleyball team, Nicole Rigoni knows well the home-court advantage Bohler Gym provides for the Cougars. 

When she returned to Pullman to provide analysis for the Pac-12 Network broadcast of the No. 5 ranked Cougars’ match against No. 3 Stanford, Oct. 8, Rigoni soon realized the advantage she enjoyed as a player was multiplied. 

“As many games as I’ve broadcast around the country there isn’t an arena that can replicate Bohler Gym the way it was,” Rigoni, who played for the Cougars in 2016 and 2017, said. “Now it’s even better with that Block section and the Taraflex floor.

“You feel the energy inside the gym,” she added.

That energy has propelled the program to an unprecedented run of seven-straight NCAA Tournament appearances and is on track for an eighth in 2023. From 2016 to 2022, the Cougars have won 70 percent of their matches at Bohler, and during the past three seasons, including 2023, the program has won nearly 80 percent of its matches at Bohler.

“It speaks to the importance facilities have for the program,” Head Coach Jen Greeny said inside her Bohler Gym office. “For our program, facilities and facility upgrades are our No. 1 priority.”

During the offseason, Bohler Gym, one of the few volleyball-only facilities in the country, underwent an extensive renovation with the addition of a Taraflex floor and additional bleachers at the west end of the court devoted exclusively for students, which was named “The Block.”

The Block

“Typically, we have a good home-court advantage but this year, with the addition of The Block, we really didn’t know what a huge impact that would have,” Greeny said. “It’s been really fun to see that extra student section.”

Greeny and her staff saw first-hand the effects an end-of-the-court student section can have on the opposition during their travels as a visiting team.

“We understood, as the opponent, how difficult it was,” Greeny said. 

Installed during the past summer, it didn’t take long for Greeny to witness the difference the renovations made during the Cougars’ first marquee match of the season at Bohler, against No. 8 BYU, Sept. 8.

“It was full, and it was loud,” Greeny recalled of the atmosphere at Bohler during the BYU match, which the Cougars won in four sets. “Seeing the students right behind the servers. The entire coaching staff thought this was pretty cool.”

The…