No. 10 Cougars Bounce Back Against Cal

College volleyball

Senior Elis Arias led the Cougars with 11 kills and had a .357 hitting average as No. 10 Washington State University defeated California 15-3, 15-10, 15-9 before 1,364 spectators at Bohler Gym on Saturday night.

The win came one night after the Cougars were swept by No. 4 Stanford as they improved to 18-3, 6-3 in the Pac-10. Cal slipped to 6-12, 1-8.

The Bears played without top hitter Jessica Dinaberg (sprained ankle) as WSU held Cal to a -.034 hitting average. WSU hit .195.

“We’re still making too many mistakes,” WSU coach Cindy Fredrick said. “They (WSU players) needed this win, and I think I needed this win too. There are a lot of things we need to take care of next week.”

WSU travels to California to play No. 5 USC on Thursday and No. 22 UCLA on Friday.

Stanford (18-2, 9-0), meanwhile, finished its swing through Washington with a 3-0 win over the University of Washington (11-7, 6-3).

Sarah Noriega landed 23 kills and led No. 20 Loyola Marymount to a 15-8, 15-9, 15-6 win over Gonzaga at the Martin Centre. Noriega, who leads the West Coast Conference in kills (5.88 per game) finished with a .405 attack percentage in the match as the Lions improved to 15-4. 5-1. It was their ninth straight win.

Nora Grasham led the Bulldogs (8-12, 2-3) with 10 kills and Teresa Spink added nine. LMU hit .245 and played solid defense which forced GU into 28 hitting errors for -.052 hitting in the match.

At Irvine, Calif., Jessica Moore and Jeri Hymas each put away 16 kills as the University of Idaho came from behind to beat Cal State Irvine 4-15, 19-17, 15-9, 15-6.

Moore, who hit .424 in the match, also contributed with 12 digs, second to Jemena Yocum’s 14 digs.

Hymas broke her career high for hitting average, set last Friday against Cal State Fullerton, with a .469 mark. She hit .462 against Fullerton. The Vandals hit .277 to UCI’s .163.

The win was Idaho’s fourth straight and improved its record to 12-9, 6-2 in the Big West Conference. The Anteaters fell to 5-15, 0-8.

UCI setter Teri Zartman left the match earlier in the third game after injuring her right knee.

The Vandals play host to No. 7 UC Santa Barbara on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. Earlier this week, the Gauchos beat UCLA in four games.

Whitworth fell to 3-7 after losing to George Fox 15-10, 15-8, 15-11 in a non-conference match at Whitworth.

Brooke Evans led the Pirates with seven kills on .125 hitting. Mandy Decious contributed with 11 digs.

, DataTimes