Coug Women Win Two

Washington State earned two victories in the first day of the WSU Cougar Challenge Volleyball Tournament Friday in Pullman.

WSU, ranked 26th nationally in the preseason coaches’ poll, defeated Weber State 3-0 at noon and New Mexico State 3-0 in the nightcap before a crowd of 860.

Cougars junior Sarah Silvernail, the eldest on this year’s team, had 17 kills and five blocks in the New Mexico State win and contributed seven kills and four blocks against Weber State. Sophomore Keren Oigman had 19 kills for the day, while redshirt freshman setter Stephanie Papke had 57 assists.

WSU had 16 team blocks in its first two matches of the season compared to eight by their opponents and hit .303 for the day.

“I was really happy with the aggressive blocking tonight,” WSU coach Cindy Fredrick said. “When you hold a team to a .071 hitting percentage (New Mexico State) that means you’re doing some pretty good blocking.”

In other action at Bohler Gym, New Mexico State defeated Gonzaga 3-0 and Brigham Young also beat the Zags 3-0.

Today’s action pits Weber State and New Mexico State at 10 a.m., Washington State and Gonzaga at noon, New Mexico State and BYU at 3 p.m., Gonzaga and Weber State at 5, and the “cat fight” of the tournament, No. 13 BYU and Washington State at 7.

At the University of San Francisco, the University of Idaho split a pair of matches at the PowerBar Collegiate Invitational. In the first match, San Jose State beat the Vandals 18-16, 15-10, 15-11. Idaho came back to top the host team 15-11, 15-13, 15-5.

Tzvetelina Yanchulova led the Vandals with 44 kills on the day. She had 20 kills, 13 digs and a .280 hitting percentage to offset the play of All-American Paola Paz-Soldan for San Jose State. Yanchulova recorded 24 kills, a .454 hitting mark, and 16 kills in the sweep of the Dons.

Idaho continues play today with a 9:30 a.m. match against Eastern Michigan, to be followed by a 5 p.m. meeting with Cal-State Northridge.

In Irvine, Calif., Whitworth lost a pair of matches to finish fourth in its pool in the first round of Concordia University’s Labor Day Festival.

Whitworth will play College of the Southwest today at 8:30 a.m. in a consolation bracket match at Woodbridge High School.

Hockey

Joe Cardarelli, Jared Smyth and Dmitri Leonov each scored a goal as the Spokane Chiefs tied Portland 3-3 in a Western Hockey League exhibition played in Kimberley, British Columbia.

The Chiefs and Winter Hawks meet again Sunday at 6 p.m. at Eagles Ice-A-Rena.

Softball

Mike Peterson had five hits and six RBIs to lead Brymile of Spokane to a pair of victories at the 50-team Amateur Softball Association Men’s Major Modified Pitch National Tournament in Miami.

In first-round action, Wade Liberty pitched a complete game with two strikeouts and two walks as Brymile defeated Robinson of Pennsylvania 6-1.

In the second round, Mark Arland had two home runs and four RBIs to lead Brymile past the Atlanta A’s 13-3.

Brymile suffered a potentially devestating blow when third baseman and clean-up hitter Tim Rypien slipped while running the bases in the seventh inning against Atlanta. Rypien broke his left elbow and will be out for the remainder of the tournament.

, DataTimes MEMO: Changed in the Spokane edition.