Cougars Dump Bruins To Stay Perfect WSU Coach Makes Some Changes That Help Team Get By Ucla In Four

Cindy Fredrick made some changes Saturday night. The outcome was the same for her No. 6 Washington State University Cougars. They won another volleyball match.

Midway through the second game of its Pacific-10 Conference match against No. 18 UCLA, the Cougars coach pulled senior setter Stephanie Papke and replaced her with junior Samantha Spink.

The Penn State transfer, who graduated from Coeur d’Alene High in 1995, responded by leading the Cougars past the Bruins 13-15, 15-8, 15-10, 15-12 before an extremely loud Bohler Gym crowd of 2,635. It was the third time in four matches Papke started and Spink finished.

“I’m not sure why they took me out. That might be a good question for the coach,” said Papke, a second-team All-American senior who always seems composed on and off the court.

Fredrick had her reasons.

“Sam usually speeds things up,” Fredrick explained. “It wasn’t that Stephanie was doing badly, but I pulled her out to change the tempo. Sometimes setters become predictable.”

The win improved Washington State to 16-0 overall, 4-0 in conference play. It also extended its home winning streak to 22. The Bruins dropped two in the state of Washington this weekend and return home at 5-4, 1-3.

The Cougars lost the first game 15-13, after leading 11-9. WSU’s Jennifer Stinson saved one game point with a kill.Papke and Stinson saved the second game point on a block, but a kill by UCLA’s Lyn Embree landed inside the line and the Bruins won on their third attempt.

WSU jumped to a 4-0 lead off Keren Oigman’s serves to open the second game. But the Bruins crept back when WSU failed to score off seven straight service chances.

When it got as close as 6-5 in favor of the Cougars, Fredrick called Spink’s number. Wendy Rouse followed with a kill off a Spink set, Jennifer Canevari floated over a dink, and the Cougs were ahead 7-5. They leveled the match at 1-1 when Embree hit wide.

“When you’re on the bench, you should always expect you can be put in at any moment,” said Spink, who finished with 43 assists. “There’s a lot of things I need to work on. I think I could have given some better sets in some situations. But that’s what next week’s practices are for.”

For the moment, the Cougars will savor the weekend sweep of USC and UCLA. It also was a weekend that saw Fredrick receive yellow cards in both matches. Throughout Saturday’s match, Fredrick was popping off the bench and popping off her opinion to official Peter Meyer and down official Rebecca Brislain.

UCLA had its share of flags, too. One for delay of game in the second game and another when Kara Milling was called for talking to the referee, a no-no for anyone but the team captains. Veteran coach Andy Banachowski also expressed his opinion throughout the match.

The crowd fed off the craziness, chanting “Sit down coach,” when Banachowski got up. It also seemed to pump up the home team and intimidate the visitors.

The final game featured the longest points, especially down the stretch when WSU was clinging to a lead that was as narrow as 14-12.

It ended the suspense on the fifth match point when Stinson floated over an unreturnable dink. Stinson led the Cougars with 20 kills (.316) and nine of the team’s 13.5 blocks.

Milling was the Bruins’ most dominate player, with 24 kills (.326) and 11 digs.

, DataTimes