It’s On To Wisconsin Cougars Roll Past Colorado State In Four, Face Florida Next In Volleyball’s Sweet 16

Let’s see how all this worked out.

The Lehigh volleyball players turned into vocal Colorado State fans Sunday afternoon, cheering every point and sideout that fell the Rams’ way. The Colorado State players claimed a lot of teams they’ve played - Brigham Young and Washington for starters - could beat the Cougars.

Now, guess who’s going to Madison, Wis., next weekend to play in the Central Regional of the NCAA Tournament?

Surely not Lehigh, a team No. 11 Washington State barely broke a sweat over in the first round.

And not No. 21 Colorado State, a team which knew how to grab leads, but only managed to win one game in Washington State’s 15-12, 12-15, 15-6, 15-13 second-round victory before 904 spectators at Bohler Gym.

The win advanced the Cougars (26-6), seeded third in the region, into the Sweet 16 for a second consecutive year.

“Last year, we didn’t really see the whole picture. We didn’t know how far it was to go. And now we’re two games to the Final Four,” said Washington State senior setter Stephanie Papke, who surprised the Rams with eight kills. “Now we know we can compete here. We’re just excited about our bid.”

The Cougars will travel to Wisconsin to play No. 2-seed Florida (32-3) Saturday at 3 p.m PST. The second half of the regional semifinal will match top-seeded Wisconsin (29-2) against fourth-seeded Notre Dame (25-8). The winners will meet Sunday at 11 a.m. PST, with the regional champion advancing to the Final Four, Dec. 18-20, in the Spokane Arena.

Sunday’s triumph was a team effort by the Cougars, who finished with five players owning more than 10 kills and five who hit .250 or better. The Cougars also showed comeback ability, trailing as late as 12-8 in the first game and 13-12 in the finale before pulling out the win.

Elis Arias, one of four seniors playing in her last Bohler Gym match, led the Cougars with 18 kills on .318 hitting. Arias mixed up her shots and continually fooled the Rams with dinks.

In the fourth game, the Cougars tied the score at 13-13 on a Keren Oigman kill, and they took the lead when Oigman and Wendy Rouse teamed for a block.

On the first match point, Rouse was called for touching the net. But after siding out, the Cougars won the match early in the point when Judy Rexroth’s shot sailed long for Colorado State.

“I told them when they were down 6-2 in the fourth game, I never thought they’d lose,” Washington State coach Cindy Fredrick said. “They did an awesome job coming back.”

Indeed. With WSU trailing 9-5 in the final game, the Cougars strung together five points, beginning with one that featured amazing digs by Shannon Wyckoff and Oigman, followed by a monster kill by Jennifer Stinson.

“That’s when we could see on the other side of the net they were going down a little bit,” Fredrick said. “And Lehigh, sitting behind us was quieting down a little bit.”

Some of Lehigh’s players found it fit to snuggle up with Colorado State backers who were seated behind WSU’s bench. The Mountain Hawks, smothered in three by WSU on Saturday night, hoped to witness an upset, but the Rams (26-7) failed to deliver, despite a strong start.

They were leading 12-9 in Game 1 before Washington State scored four straight points for a 13-12 lead. The opener featured 10 digs by Wyckoff, who finished with a match-high 22.

Wyckoff and the Cougars managed to slow the Rams’ most dangerous hitters, Rainie Rogers and Catie Vagneur, both of whom play on the outside. They finished with 11 and 12 kills, respectively. Janie Penfield, another outside hitter, hurt the Cougars the most with 21 kills on .417 hitting.

“I think we’ve played a lot stronger teams,” Penfield said. “BYU and Washington, they had bigger blockers.”

WSU, however, outblocked Colorado State 12-4.

Rogers added Utah to the list and said the Utes “could take WSU to five games.” Washington State played Utah early in the season and won 3-0.

CSU coach Tom Hilbert, a good friend to Fredrick during his days coaching at University of Idaho, was more gracious.

“The first and fourth games were games that could have gone either way,” said Hilbert, who received yellow cards in the second and fourth games. “I felt in the last game, if we got a couple bounces differently, the match would have been ours.”

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