Cougars Sweep Huskies Large Crowd Sees WSU Complete Unbeaten Season At Home

It was as sweet as a caramel apple on a stick, the kind with the gooey coating that sits trapped on the molars long after the last bite.

The 12th-ranked Washington State University volleyball team, cheered on by the largest home crowd of the season (3,226), saved one of its most delicious triumphs - a 16-14, 15-6, 15-4 payback win over No. 17 Washington - for Friday night’s home finale.

“Beating Stanford (earlier this year) was great,” WSU coach Cindy Fredrick said. “But any Cougar knows there’s nothing sweeter than beating the Huskies. Especially in the last home match of the season.”

The win secured second place in the Pacific-10 Conference for the Cougars, who went 14-4 and for the first time won all their home matches.

They will take their 23-5 overall record on the road next weekend, where they will compete in the Bankers Classic in Stockton, Calif., against Notre Dame and South Florida or Pacific.

The Cougars will return home Dec. 1 to await the NCAA Tournament selection committee’s pairings. Friday night’s win almost assures them a first-round bye.

Washington (22-7, 12-6) finished the conference in a third-place tie with USC. But when tournament time rolls around, UW coach Bill Neville is hoping to see the team that racked up 22 wins, one over WSU in three games in Seattle, get an invitation.

“We made them play our game in our place and they made us play their game at this place,” Neville said. “They play a patient, transition kind of game where they get a lot of touches off the block.

“Our game is more of a net-blocking game. Theirs is more of a ball-handling defense.”

UW’s game centers around 6-foot-4 hitter Angela Bransom, who is second in the conference in kills per game at 5.18. WSU relies on 6-1 middle blocker Sarah Silvernail, first in the conference with 5.94 kills per game.

Silvernail won that battle, too, outhitting Bransom 19-14 (.308 hitting percentage vs. .154). UW’s second big hitter, Makare Desilets, finished with 18 kills and an impressive .441 percentage.

“We didn’t figure we’d slow her (Silvernail) down too much,” Neville said.

But they did slow her slightly in the first game when Silvernail landed just five kills and started with two uncharacteristic errors. That, along with a Desilets kill and a Desilets and Bransom block, gave the Huskies a 4-1 lead.

The Cougars never put together more than two consecutive points in the opening game, but they did win two points in a row on four occasions. The fourth time - a Keren Oigman kill followed by a Jennifer Stinson kill - decided the outcome after UW had tied the game for the fourth time at 14.

Junior outside hitter Elis Arias proved to be a huge help in the tight opener, recording four kills and two blocks. Her service ace gave the Cougars a 12-11 lead.

“I felt good in the first game,” said Arias. “I think I play good when I have to.”

From there, the entire team contributed, leaving little doubt about the outcome. The closest UW got in the second game was 4-2 before WSU put on a killing, blocking and digging clinic.

The second game marked the return of former starter Shannon Wyckoff, who suffered an ankle injury in the October win against Stanford. Wyckoff finished with two kills and three digs. Sophomore Jennifer Canevari had 10 kills and a team-high 14 digs.

In the final game, WSU jumped ahead 5-0, continued to feed off the festive Apple Cup weekend crowd and continued to build on the lead. The Cougars finished the match on a Canevari kill that came off an athletic - but typical - dig by Silvernail.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo