The Beavers Women’s Volleyball team beat the Washington State Cougars in 3-1 sets Friday night in their last home game of the season.
This was their first home win against the Cougars since 2017 and their first under head coach Lindsey Behonick.
The team reversed its previous 1-3 loss to WSU this season and continued a winning streak this week after a clean 3-0 sweep against the Portland Pilots on Wednesday.
The first set was tight. The Beaver came out with a strong 4-1 lead over the Cougars. They crept back into the set and began to pull ahead, leading 11-8 and 19-17 at points. However, the Beavers dug deep, pulled the score back to 20-20, and pushed ahead to take the first game 25-22.
The Beavers continued the trend of getting an early lead during the second set, leading 5-2 to start. Similar events unfolded as the two teams fought neck and neck towards the end, tying for most of the set. Junior Lauen Rumel played a crucial role in the Beavers’ offense, with multiple kills. Unfortunately, the Cougs’ got the lead 20-18 and extended it 25-20 to earn the set.
During the final two sets, the Beavers gained momentum and dominated the latter half of the game, winning 25-13 in both sets. It was clear the Beavers were focused on staying composed, and not letting the previous set get to them. Both the offense and defense tightened up.
Libero Yasemin Narlioglu played a key role in the defensive energy that prevented the Cougars from pulling back the third set, digging against countless shots from the Cougars. Another standout player from this set was freshman Alara Doganyüz, who delivered the final blow to the Cougars on set three’s match point.
It was clear across all sets that the Beavers had a goal of starting strong, scoring the first points in every set. In a previous interview this week, opposite Amanda Burns said, “It was crucial for the team to start each set with big energy and score early.”
Behonick felt the team executed maintaining an early lead.
“It starts with our training and it continues to be a focus, but also we’ve just been playing sets where there’s an emphasis on a certain part of the game,” Behonick said. “What’s cool is that what we were practicing was translating exactly in real-time to the game.”
From the stands, it was obvious that the Beavers were playing confidently and were in the zone. The energy shift on the court was reflected in the large wins in the second half of the game.
“We were leaning into each other and taking it one point at a time, attacking it with a competitive mindset. And we were having fun, which is the main thing,” junior outside hitter Lauren Rumel said.
On another note, new Pac-12 Commissioner Theresa Gould was in attendance tonight, as it was each team’s only true in-conference match this year.
The Beaver will travel to Southern California to finish their conference play, battling LMU on Nov. 27, followed by Pepperdine on Nov. 30.
