Arias Helped Herself Become A Key Coug

It won’t get past the spellcheck, but sometimes there has to be an “I” in “team.”

Selflessness may be next to godliness, but it may also get you the next-to-last seat on the bench.

Volleying arguments inside her head, Elis Arias eventually decided sticking up for herself was a good thing - that it wasn’t whining, that it was the right kind of selfish, that her coach might actually understand.

This was three months ago. Washington State was winning volleyball matches, as usual. Arias was hardly playing.

The Cougars are still winning. And Arias never comes out.

If this suggests the Cougs could keep on cruising through the NCAA Volleyball Tournament with a department store mannequin in Arias’ outside hitter spot, then Sunday’s victory over Colorado State in the second round at Bohler Gym suggested something else entirely.

“She was outstanding,” said CSU coach Tom Hilbert, a witness of WSU volleyball for years from his former post at Idaho. “I haven’t seen her this year, obviously, but she never played that well against me before.”

Maybe not against anyone else, either - a team-high 18 kills, a .318 hitting percentage (think of it as a batting average) and some huge points in both Cougar comebacks Sunday.

There are any number of reasons the Cougs find themselves in college volleyball’s Sweet 16 again, and most of them were on display Sunday. Shannon Wyckoff dug everything but CSU’s grave. Setter Stephanie Papke didn’t just load the gun, she fired it, too.

And when presented with scads of opportunities to cave in, the Cougs’ senior-laden lineup simply proved to be far more resilient than CSU’s senior-laden lineup - which is, after all, what being a senior is all about.

That made it all the more hilarious to hear a few of the Rams players diss Wazzu - subtly, but unmistakably - in the post-game. So much for the lovely parting gifts.

Hilbert was more magnanimous, giving the Cougs at least an even chance of surviving the next round against Florida, seeded into the tournament as the No. 5 team.

“Florida’s not great right now,” Hilbert insisted. “We had a very close match with Arkansas (in September) and Arkansas beat Florida - and I think Washington State is as good as Arkansas. Florida has some great athletes, but they’re flawed.

“The Cougars are very balanced. You’d think the loss of (All-American Sarah) Silvernail might have hurt them, but they’re harder to scout and harder to predict now because they have better balance.”

And part of that balancing act, undeniably, is Elis Arias.

She was very much a part of the mix when the Cougars reached the Elite Eight a year ago, and very much not a part of it in August and September after missing three weeks of practice and Wazzu’s first tournament. Arias had been invited to play for her native Mexico in the World University Games in Sicily and went with WSU coach Cindy Fredrick’s blessing and best wishes.

“So I felt good about it,” Arias recalled. “But when I came back, I felt maybe it wasn’t such a good idea.”

Jennifer Caneveri and Wyckoff had settled into the lineup on the outside, and Papke had established a rhythm with all the hitters that Arias just couldn’t grasp. She played sparingly through most of the nonconference season - her predicament made even more delicate because not only were the Cougs unbeaten in that stretch, they had lost only one game in 12 matches.

“I wanted to play, but we were winning,” she said. “I didn’t want to be selfish. But I wasn’t getting the chance I was expecting.”

Finally, she steeled herself for a meeting with Fredrick to request more minutes - and Fredrick was open-minded enough to listen.

“She’s not just a gamer, she’s incredibly competitive - sometimes she drives you nuts that way,” Fredrick said.

“Those three (Arias, Caneveri and Wyckoff) have always had this constant competition, but Elis hasn’t let somebody come in and take her place this year. That’s what (the players) on the left side have always known: ‘If I mess up, there’s someone else to take my place.’ But she deserved a chance to be in there.”

Besides the increased opportunity, the Cougars began giving her higher sets (“She’s got great hops,” Fredrick said) - and Arias began to see herself as an integral part of the equation.

“I think I always play really hard - I was born and raised like that,” said the 22-year-old senior, whose mother was a 1968 volleyball Olympian for Mexico. “But it was hard for me, coming back here and then not playing. There were days I was down and that’s not a good idea. Your coaches see that. You think you’re trying, but you’re not.

“And maybe last year, there was more focus on other players. No, not focus - but you knew there were other players who could get it done and maybe you didn’t think you had to step up.”

Maybe you don’t think you have to speak up sometimes, either. But you do.

, DataTimes MEMO: You can contact John Blanchette by voice mail at 459-5577, extension 5509.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = John Blanchette The Spokesman-Review