Stanford Gets Back At WSU Cardinal Earn Revenge With Sweep Of Cougars

This time it was Stanford University’s volleyball team that got to do all the hugging and high-fiving on the hardwood floor of Bohler Gym.

Nearly one year after Washington State upset the Cardinal here, Stanford got even. Actually, there was nothing even about this match as the No. 4-ranked team and defending national champion scored a lopsided 15-11, 15-8, 16-14 win over No. 10 Washington State before 3,000 Cougars backers on Friday night.

The loss was the Cougars’ third in their last four Pacific-10 Conference matches and dropped them to 17-3, 5-3 in league. Stanford has won 12 straight matches and improved to 17-2, 8-0. It has defeated the Cougars in 23 out of 24 matches. “I don’t care if it’s Stanford. Stanford didn’t play an awesome match. We beat ourselves,” Washington State coach Cindy Fredrick said.

The Cougars’ most glaring deficiency was in their blocking. They came in averaging 3.43 blocks per game and finished with just four blocks to Stanford’s 12. Kristin Folkl, Stanford’s top hitter, killed the Cougs all night from the left side. The three-time All-American senior finished with 19 kills, with an attack average of .231. Stanford’s two-sport athlete’s next trip to Pullman will be during the basketball season, where she has been just as big a factor in the past.

“She (Folkl) only hits one shot and that’s cross-court and we didn’t have the ability to stop her,” said Fredrick. “Folkl played great defense and she had a great passing game.”

When the Cougars weren’t attempting to slow down Folkl, they were trying to stop Stanford’s second hitter, Kerri Walsh.

The 1996 national freshman player of the year had shoulder surgery during the off-season and has been relying on her dink shot more than her left-handed swinging kill shot. She caught the Cougars off guard all night.

“She hit .222 because we couldn’t figure out how to pick up the tip. You should never lose to a team whose No. 2 hitter can only tip the ball. We should have been able to take care of that and we should have been able to win,” Fredrick said.

The Cougars started out fine, jumping to a 5-1 lead when Keren Oigman’s serve hit the back line for an ace. But after a couple of Folkl kills bounced off Shannon Wyckoff’s arms, Stanford climbed back into the first game.

WSU tied the game at 10 when Wyckoff scored on a tip. It tied it again at 11 when Wyckoff served an ace, but that was the Cougars’ last point in the first game after two sideouts.

After falling behind 2-0 in games, WSU jumped out to a 7-1 lead in the third game but couldn’t hold on. It led as late as 14-11 and blew four game points down the stretch.

“We’ve gotten to a point where we can’t close out a game, and that’s a big problem,” Fredrick said.

Washington State’s most inspiring point came midway through Game 3 when setter Stephanie Papke and Jennifer Stinson landed a huge block on Folkl’s kills. That got the capacity crowd going, but not enough to rattle Stanford.

Papke, meanwhile, was pulled for Samantha Spink in the second game and returned in the third. Stinson, the Cougars’ top hitter, led the team with 12 kills (.206 hitting). Overall, the team hit .145 - it’s lowest output of the season - to Stanford’s .234.

The Cougars play host to California tonight at 7. The game should be considered somewhat of a breather. The Bears lost 3-0 to Washington Friday night.

“The way we’re playing, we can’t breathe against anybody right now,” Fredrick said.

University of Idaho (11-9, 5-2) won its third straight match, beating Cal State Fullerton (10-9, 3-4) 15-6, 7-15, 15-13, 7-15, 15-11 in Big West Conference play at Fullerton, Calif.

Trailing 10-8 in the final game of the five-set match, the Vandals put the game away behind kills by Jeri Hymas and Alli Nieman.

Hymas slammed a season-high 21 kills along with a career-high .462 attack average. Jessica Moore led Idaho with 23 kills and a team-high 13 digs.

Nicole Bruner and Katie Jo Borgmann recorded 11 kills apiece with only three hitting errors between them as Whitworth (5-12, 3-6) downed Pacific (5-12, 1-8) 15-9, 15-11, 15-11 in a Northwest Conference of Independent Colleges match at Whitworth.

The Pirates hit .286 as a team, led by Bruner’s .500 mark. Bruner also contributed six block assists. Mary Hubele hit .375 and collected 23 assists and 14 digs.

Women’s soccer

Arizona State University scored two second-half goals off long balls to stop Washington State’s five-game winning streak with a 3-1 Pacific-10 Conference victory at Pullman.

The losing Cougars (7-5-0, 2-1-0 Pac-10) fell from the unbeaten ranks in Pac-10 play.

Karine Inoue ran down a long ball and passed ahead to Jaclyn Clark, who scored the tie-breaking goal for the Sun Devils (8-4-0, 2-0-0 Pac-10) in the 58th minute.

Clark settled another long pass and found Inoue in the box for the final score.

Men’s soccer

Jeff McAllister scored two goals and collected two assists to lead Gonzaga’s Bulldogs (10-3-0, 1-0-0) to a 7-2 victory over Saint Mary’s (5-5-2, 0-2-0) in their West Coast Conference opener at Moraga, Calif.

Gonzaga, leading 2-1, broke the game open by scoring three goals in less than 4 minutes early in the second half.

Community Colleges of Spokane wrapped its goals around halftime to defeat Clark College 3-0 at Vancouver, Wash.

Women’s basketball

Coaches and media representatives have picked the University of Montana to continue its reign over the Big Sky Conference, according to the 1997-98 preseason poll released Friday.

Last season, the Griz posted a 16-0 league mark while winning their third straight league title.

Among conference coaches, Montana received seven of nine first-place votes, while Idaho State, a surprise second-place finisher last year, was picked to finish second again. Rounding out the top four were Montana State and Northern Arizona. Eastern Washington was picked last.

Media voters unanimously selected Montana to win its fourth straight title, with Montana State picked second. Eastern Washington again was picked to bring up the rear.

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