College volleyball: No. 13 Washington holds off 22nd-ranked Washington State in Pac-12 opener

Samantha Drechsel finished with a match-high 21 kills and 13th-ranked Washington opened Pac-12 Conference volleyball play with a 25-18, 25-17, 19-25, 16-25, 15-9 win over No. 22 Washington State on Thursday in Seattle.

Kara Bajema added 15 kills and Ella May Powell had 52 assists and 17 digs for the Huskies (9-2).

UW scored four consecutive points in the fifth set to take an 8-4 lead.

Taylor Mims had 18 kills and 13 digs, and Ashley Brown added 34 assists and 15 digs for the Cougars (9-2).

• Kaylie Loewen finished with a match-high 14 kills while leading Gonzaga to a 3-0 sweep of visiting Loyola Marymount to open West Coast Conference play. Sarah Penner and Chapin Gray added eight kills apiece for the Bulldogs (4-8). GU’s Jenna Kuehn, Faith Smith and Tiyana Hallums combined for 40 assists and 34 digs. The Zags had their second-best hitting percentage of the season (.297). Sara Kovac had 11 kills for the Lions (10-2), who had won seven consecutive matches and hadn’t been swept this season.
• Sarah Sharp, Reece Carman and Kaela Straw combined for 32 kills to guide Idaho (8-6, 2-0 Big Sky) to a 3-0 sweep of Northern Colorado (4-6, 0-1) in Greeley, Colorado. Also for the Vandals, DeVonne Ryter had a match-best four blocks, Haylee Mathis had 33 assists and six digs, and Alycia Wodke added 21 digs. Idaho hit .292 to the Bears’ .126. It’s the first time since 1998 Idaho has started conference play with two sweeps and the first time in program history the Vandals have kicked off a conference season with two road sweeps.