Cougars KO’d in NCAA opener

LINCOLN, Neb. – The Washington State volleyball team was swept out of the NCAA tournament by No. 20 Northern Iowa in a first-round match Friday afternoon at the Nebraska University Coliseum.

The Panthers (31-2) came into the tournament on a 28-match win streak and didn’t slow down against the Cougars (18-13) in taking a 26-24, 25-21, 25-20 victory.

“I was concerned with the confidence that they (Northern Iowa) had coming in,” Cougars head coach Andrew Palileo said.

“Any time a team comes in with that type of winning streak, you always come in with a sense of air and confidence.”

WSU took a 13-7 lead in the first set. UNI caught the Cougars at 17 before WSU went back out. With the Cougars leading 23-21, attacks by Panthers Shannon Aschoff and Bre Payton tied it up. Meagan Ganzer’s kill put WSU serving for set at 24-23, but the Cougars committed three consecutive attack errors and UNI took the first set.

“They made some plays when they needed to in that first set and that really set the tone for what they really wanted to try to do against us and put us on our heels a little bit,” Palileo said.

In the second set, Northern Iowa jumped out to a 15-8 lead and the Cougars fought back to within three at 22-19 but could not close the gap any further.

WSU took a 12-9 lead to open the third set, but Northern Iowa scored four consecutive points to go ahead 13-12. The teams tied at 14 and at 17 when UNI tallied three straight for a 20-17 lead. The Cougars scored only two more points as the Panthers went on to win.

WSU was led by freshman Rachel Todorovich with a career-high 15 kills, a .556 hitting percentage (0 errors on 27 attacks) and 10 digs. Sophomore Meagan Ganzer added 13 kills. Kelly Hyder led the Cougars with 13 digs and Renee Bordelon had 35 assists.

WSU’s Brittany Tillman had five kills and led the match with five blocks.

Aschoff and Michelle Burrow combined for 26 kills to lead Northern Iowa.

UNI’s Ellie Blankenship led the match with 18 digs. Payton added 38 assists and 14 digs. Krista DeGeest and Payton each had two blocks.

“There were a lot of things we thought we needed to do in order to be successful and I think our kids really stepped up and did those things,” UNI coach Bobbi Peterson said.

“I think I’ve talked all year about our defense and what our defense has been able to do. I really thought they did a nice job of putting pressure on Washington State. … To me it (the win) was a good team effort.”