Cougars Take A Tumble As Huskies Win In Four

It wasn’t an easy admission, but Washington State University volleyball coach Cindy Fredrick is not one to let a stirring performance like the one Washington’s Makare Desilets put on Friday night go unappreciated.

“I hate to say it, but I enjoy watching her play,” Fredrick graciously said moments after Desilets had carried the 24th-ranked Huskies to a shockingly easy 3-1 upset win over her eighth-ranked Cougars.

“She’s just an incredible player,” Fredrick added. “She’s an awesome leaper, and tonight she connected really well with her setter. She was really poundin’.”

Desilets, a 6-foot-2 senior, took advantage of some splendid setting by Michelle Patton and a series of defensive breakdowns by WSU to register 22 kills and snap the Cougars’ 22-match home winning streak at Bohler Gym.

The 10-15, 15-4, 16-14, 15-9 win, witnessed by a noisy crowd of 2,554, pushed UW’s overall record to 10-6 and its Pacific-10 Conference mark to 5-2. WSU, which lost for the second time in three matches, fell to 17-2 and 5-2.

The Cougars once again played most of the night without senior middle hitter Keren Oigman, who severely sprained her left ankle in practice late last month and has been limited to back-row duty the past three matches.

Oigman, who came in with a team-high hitting percentage of .369, did not register a kill. And Washington coach Bill Neville said her injury probably hurt WSU as much as Desilets’ devastating play at the net.

“They missed Oigman a lot,” he said after beating the Cougars on the road for the first time since 1994. “Over the years, she has provided a stability for them that’s intangible. Her stats may not be the greatest on any given day, but they clearly missed her leadership.”

And Fredrick could find no one to step up in Oigman’s absence.

Jennifer Stinson, the Cougars’ outstanding outside hitter, was matched against Desilets most of the evening and managed to hit just .200 with 13 kills.

“It was tough out there against Makare,” Stinson admitted. “She’s a great player. She definitely won the matchup tonight.” In addition, the Huskies exploited Oigman’s injury each time they caught her hobbling on the back row.

“It sounds like we were pouring salt on the wound,” Neville admitted, “but when she’s on the court, you’ve got to serve to her (bad) ankle.”

WSU won the opening game 15-10 and had the crowd in full voice. But the Huskies breezed to an early 8-2 lead in winning the second game before holding on for a 16-14 win in the third.

Neville sensed the crowd becoming a factor again in Game 3 after WSU had rallied from an 11-7 deficit to take a 13-11 lead, so he called a timeout to settle things down.

The Huskies came out of the timeout and dropped the next point before Desilets took over and pounded down two consecutive kills and helped with the block that won the game.

UW then sprinted to a 10-5 lead and easy win in the decisive fourth game.

“My kids rose to the occasion and I’m real proud of them,” Neville said. “This is not an easy place to play.”

Desilets said the Huskies knew nothing about WSU’s lengthy home-court winning streak, which had dated to 1995, coming into the match.

“Our coach didn’t tell us about it until we got back in the locker room,” she said. “I guess he just wanted us to focus on the game and not the winning streak.

“But that made it even better.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo