WSU’s Victory Merited Cougars Pass Up Football To Earn Volleyball Victory

The semi-self-induced test in discipline was worth it for the Washington State volleyball team.

While many of the university’s spirited students stayed up half the night Saturday witnessing and then rehashing the Cougar football team’s entertaining win over California, the volleyball athletes stayed away. Sunday afternoon at Bohler Gym, they put away Arizona State 15-6, 15-3, 15-7.

“We weren’t allowed to go,” WSU middle blocker Sarah Silvernail said. ” It was too cold, and we would have been too tired.”

Instead, the Cougars came out fresh and fast, disposing of the visitors in 80 minutes before 931 spectators. At the halfway point through the Pac-10 Conference schedule, the No. 13 Cougars are 6-3, 15-4 overall. The Sun Devils, who were swept in three by Washington Friday night, fell to 8-7, 3-6.

“I didn’t even have to tell them not to go (to the football game),” said WSU coach Cindy Fredrick, who attended the first half herself. “That’s the difference between this team and the team maybe three years ago. All I said was, ‘You guys know that I don’t want you going to the football game,’ and they looked at me and said, ‘We know that.’ “

The Cougars also knew how to orchestrate a team effort against Arizona State. Fredrick used all 13 players and all responded, beginning with Silvernail’s match-high 16 kills (.400 hitting) and Keren Oigman’s 13 kills and .522 off-the-chart hitting.

Oigman, who has played sparingly while working through a shoulder injury, also had match-highs in digs (11) and blocks (five). The junior middle blocker joined the starting lineup along with Jennifer Canevari, a sophomore outside hitter who had played in 34 of the season’s 53 games. Canevari had an excellent match against Arizona Friday night.

“They come at you with a lot of pace,” ASU eighthyear coach Patti Snyder-Park said. “It helps them to have Keren Oigman in there because it gave them a faster offense.

“They passed very well and when they pass well, they have a lot of hitters that hit lots of different shots. We just couldn’t keep up.”

WSU’s Stephanie Papke set the offense that was relentless from the start. The Cougars built an 11-1 lead in the first game behind the strong hitting of Silvernail and Oigman (five kills each). Papke, a junior, finished with 39 assists on the day.

Arizona State’s biggest threat was 5-foot-7 junior Terri Cox, who came in averaging 5.40 kills per game to Silvernail’s 5.74. Cox finished with 14 kills in the match (.167 hitting).

“You’re not going to beat us with one player,” Fredrick said. “We took advantage a little bit that they had a freshman in the middle and a freshman on the right side. We took it to them a lot.”

Often and effortlessly, as the Cougars had no trouble in the 16-minute second game and jumped out to a 9-0 lead by the start of the second rotation. Oigman ended the game on her 11th kill in the game.

In the third game, Arizona State attempted to attack the Cougars right side, which featured the shorter blocking combination of Canevari, Elis Arias (5-9) and Shannon Wyckoff (5-11). The Sun Devils managed seven points, but found themselves trailing early 7-1. The match ended on the Cougars fourth match point when ASU’s Laura Hibsman’s shot sailed out of bounds.

With her 16 kills, Silvernail is six short of tying Carrie Couturier’s school record of 1,548 set in 1988-91.

“The match didn’t go long enough for her to do it,” said Snyder-Park of the record. “I have complete, total respect for her. Nobody has stopped her, including Arizona State.”

WSU remains at home next weekend, playing host to California (5-12, 1-8) Friday night and No. 3 Stanford (16-1, 9-0) Sunday. Once again, the game was moved to Sunday at noon to accommodate the football team’s Saturday game against Southern California which was moved to 7:15 p.m. for TV’s sake.

The WSU volleyball team will not be in attendance for the Pac-10 football showdown.

“We know the football team can take care of themselves. We have to take care of ourselves,” Fredrick said.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo