WSU Dumps Usc After Wasting Lead, Cougs Go To 15-0

If the Washington State volleyball team keeps this up, the university’s whiz-bang marketing department better get those “Preview For Spokane” flyers ready by Monday morning.

The No. 6 Cougars, who’d love nothing more than to play in the NCAA Women’s Volleyball Championships this December at the Spokane Arena, faced their toughest opponent to date Friday night in No. 7 Southern California. After jumping to a 2-0 lead in games, Washington State held on to defeat the Trojans, 16-14, 15-11, 3-15, 12-15, 15-10.

The win allowed Washington State to remain perfect at 15-0, 3-0 in the Pacific-10 Conference. It also was its 21st consecutive victory at Bohler Gym, this one witnessed by a capacity crowd of 3,000. Had it not been for event managers’ instructions to turn away spectators, it would have been played before a standing-room-only audience.

Those who got in enjoyed a night of celebration and seemingly nonstop chanting of “Go - Cougs! Go Cougs! Go - Cougs!” from one side of the bleachers to the other.

The final communal gasp - or maybe it was a sigh of relief - came 2 hours, 9 minutes into the match when junior outside hitter Jennifer Canevari slammed a kill that bounced off Shannon Redfern’s arm. Canevari led the Cougars with 15 kills (.191 hitting percent), one of six Cougars in double-digit kills. Stinson followed with 14 (.243).

“Stinson is the go-to. And I saw (USC middle blocker Jasmina) Marinkovic go with Stinson,” Canevari said while describing the match’s final point. “(Setter Stephanie) Papke pushed it to me, which was real smart. ‘Boom,’ I just shot it and rolled it down the line.”

The fifth and deciding game, played in a rally-point format where there are no sideouts, was as close as the entire match. The game was tied seven times, the last at 9.

A kill by Washington State’s Keren Oigman gave the Cougars a 10-9 lead and from there they never trailed.

“A really good solid match was played tonight,” said USC coach Lisa Love, whose team fell to 9-1, 2-1. “We needed to be a little more spontaneous. We became very predictable.”

The Trojans looked as though they were going to win the first game, jumping to a 6-0 lead and leading as late as 14-11. But Washington State, fought off two game points and tied the game at 14-14 on a USC attack error.

Washington State’s Wendy Rouse, a middle blocker who came up with timely plays throughout the match, landed a kill and the Trojans’ Jennifer Kessy committed a hitting error which gave the Cougars Game One.

The Cougars built a 7-1 lead in the second game. But Kashi Cormier smashed four kills and Marinkovic added five kills before Washington State pulled it out.

Marinkovic, this week’s ACVA national player of the week, hurt Washington State all night with her powerful hits that sliced through the middle. She finished with a match-high 26 kills and an astounding .477 hitting percentage. Kessy, meanwhile, punished WSU with 22 kills (.235), mostly from the left side. The two were key in allowing USC to tie the match at 2.

The Trojans won the fourth game when Marinkovic served three consecutive short serves for aces.

“I just let that go (three serves) because we needed to start the fifth game,” Washington State coach Cindy Fredrick said. “It was a lack of focus for a while. But the neat thing is, our team came back. That’s an awesome team we played.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: TONIGHT The Cougars are hosts to No. 18 UCLA (5-3, 1-2), a 16-14, 15-10, 18-16 loser to Washington (8-4, 3-0) Friday night in Seattle.