Gators Crunch ‘Uptight’ Cougars In Three Season Ends For No. 11 Washington State After Loss To Florida In Central Regional

The Washington State volleyball team played out of sync Saturday afternoon. And at this time of year, out of sync translates into out of the NCAA Tournament.

Washington State’s untimely performance resulted in a 15-10, 15-6, 15-8 defeat to Florida in the Central Regional semifinals.

The Cougars, ranked No. 11 in the nation and seeded third in the region, finished the year 26-7.

The Gators, ranked eighth and seeded second, carry a 33-3 record into today’s regional final against No. 1-seed Wisconsin. The fourth and final ticket to Spokane for this week’s Final Four championships awaits the winner.

“They thought maybe they wanted it too much and that got them too uptight instead of being able to let it flow,” Cougars coach Cindy Fredrick said about her team in a telephone interview after the match.

The Cougars, a final-eight team one year ago, never beat a higher-ranked team this season. But they entered the round of 16 coming off convincing postseason wins over unranked Lehigh and No. 21 Colorado State.

Florida, meanwhile, has been in the Final Four three times in the ‘90s, but never has made it to a championship match.

“I said (in the press conference), ‘That’s a great Florida team and unfortunately that’s not the same Cougar team,”’ Fredrick said. “I said ‘I think that was our evil twin that was out there tonight.”’

Evil, but not not nasty enough to scratch and claw its way back into the match.

Aside from a short-lived 6-5 lead in the first game and a 1-1 tie in the second, Washington State found itself trailing in all three games.

They were outhit in the match .349 to .157. Florida nailed 60 kills to WSU’s 48. The Gators outblocked WSU 8-4 and had 55 digs to WSU’s 36. The Cougars also made 26 errors while Florida committed 16.

“I thought they were a lot like Washington,” Fredrick said. “Not a very good passing team and not a really a good defensive team, but the setter (Nikki Shade) is such a great athlete. She puts the ball up no matter where the pass is.”

Many of Shade’s sets were directed to 6-foot-2 middle blocker Nina Foster. The Southeastern Conference player of the year finished with a match-high 18 kills on .516 hitting. Three other Florida players had 10 kills or more and Jenny Manz led her team with 16 digs.

Florida was especially effective with its back-row attack, using it as an offensive weapon throughout the match.

“We should be able to dig that back-row attack. There’s no excuse for that,” said Fredrick, whose team generally is good at both digging and blocking.

The Cougars, the last of the Pac-10 teams aside from Stanford still standing heading into Saturday’s matches, failed to put up the lofty numbers. Elis Arias, one of four seniors who ended her collegiate career, continued to lead the team in the postseason. The outside hitter finished with 13 kills on .393 hitting.

Junior middle blocker Jennifer Stinson had 10 kills on .214 hitting. However, other starting hitters Wendy Rouse finished at .-077 and Shannon Wyckoff hit .-069, but helped out with 13 digs.

“There’s a saying that goes, “‘If one hitter is not hitting well, take her out. If two hitters are not hitting well, take them out. If none of your hitters are hitting well, take the setters out,”’ Fredrick commented.

And that’s exactly what she did with the Cougars trailing 8-1 in the final game - sub in Samantha Spink for starter Stephanie Papke.

Spink, from Coeur d’Alene, made a slight impact, allowing WSU to pull within 8-4 by surprising Florida with a kill. But the Gators adjusted and scored four straight points. They closed out the win on the second match point on a clean pass, set by Shade and kill by Foster. It was a move Washington State saw all day, but was unable to stop.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: NCAA ONLINE Track the NCAA Tournament through to the Final Four in Spokane by browsing Virtually Northwest. You’ll find tourney brackets and related stories at www.virtuallynw.com