Oregon State
Washington State
Sawatzky Leads Volleyball in Five-Set Thriller Win over Cougars
November 26, 2010 | Women's Volleyball
Nov. 26, 2010
Pullman, Wash. – Senior Jill Sawatzky (St. Andrews, Manitoba) earned 20 kills and 16 digs, her 10th double-double of the season, to lead the Oregon State volleyball team (9-22, 2-15) to a five-set thrilling victory over Washington State (6-21, 0-17) on Friday evening in Bohler Gym.
Set scores were 25-27, 29-27, 25-17, 22-25, 15-11.
“First of all, kudos to our middles, who really hit well throughout the match,” head coach Taras Liskevych said. “Jill Sawatzky came back to really play well in the fourth and fifth sets for us. And outstanding serving by Tami Brown at the end of that match. She came in and just served the set out after having never having played until that instance – I thought that was really good. Hopefully it's a start to getting some winning ways, and we're going to go hard after the Huskies tomorrow night.”
Three other Beaver hitters joined Sawatzky in double-digits for kills with freshman Mona Kressl (Langenzenn, Germany) adding 12, junior Dre Shaw (Wailuku, Hawai'i) tallying 11 and sophomore Ashley Eneliko (Seattle, Wash.) earning 10 – hitting .500 with no errors.
Oregon State led through most of the first set but was unable to hang on as the Cougars took the early 1-0 lead. But the Beavers battled back to hang on in the second consecutive extra point set to tie up the match going into the long break.
The two teams battled back and forth to push the match to a deciding fifth, and behind the serving of sophomore Tami Brown (Eugene, Ore.), three big kills by Sawatzky and a Brown service ace gave the Beavers the victory.
Freshman Becky Defoe (Bend, Ore.) racked up 12 digs, while Eneliko and Shaw led the defensive effort at the net with five blocks each.
Washington State's Meagan Ganzer, Marcelina Glab and Brittany Tillman all had 14 kills each, while Oceana Bush dug a match-high 17 balls.
Oregon State ends its season at No. 13 Washington on Saturday at 7:00 p.m.
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