Volleyball Falls to Washington State
October 9, 1998
PULLMAN, Wash. - The Oregon State volleyball team (10-7, 0-6) dropped its fifth straight match after losing to Washington State (6-6, 3-3) in three games at Beasley Coliseum Friday evening. Game scores were 15-7, 15-13 and 15-11.
"We had a game plan to establish a middle attack, and we did that when we handled the ball," said coach Jeff Mozzochi. "But, our outside hitters struggled. When you don't have any outside hitting in this league, it's pretty tough to win with just your middle attack."
WSU opened the match on a 9-0 run before the Beavers could get on the scoreboard. Angie Shirley hit .778 in the first game, but as a whole the Beavers struggled with a .118 hitting percentage in the opener. OSU scored five of its points off WSU errors, but the Cougars hit .355 as a team in the first game.
Game two was a much closer contest, with the teams knotted at 9-9 midway through the game before OSU went on a run to jump ahead, 13-9. WSU responded with its own rally and tied the score at 13-13. After six sideouts, WSU scored twice to take the game.
The Cougars broke away from a 6-6 tie in game three to take a 14-6 lead, but the Beavers kept the match alive with their own rally. Gina Schmidt slammed down a kill for a sideout that led to five Beaver points to edge within 14-11. Wendy Rouse eventually put the match in the books with a kill to end the game.
Shirley led the Beavers with a match-high 14 kills. Schmidt and Sarah Bjeldanes both finished with 10 kills apiece for OSU, and Selina Scoble hit .500 with seven kills. Rouse and Jennifer Stinson each had 13 kills to lead the Cougar attack.
WSU topped OSU in kills (56-49), digs (39-30) and blocks (13-7). The Cougars hit .248 for the match, while OSU hit just .156 on the night.
"Washington State played real hard in the close points in the games. We played hard, but we just made too many mistakes," said Mozzochi. "They're very big, and so our inexperienced outside hitters talked themselves into having themselves a tough night against their block. We just need to get more experience."
Linescore Oregon State 7 13 11 Washington State 15 15 15
