WSU No. 16 Seed Volleyball Falls to No. 1 Seed
Stanford in Sweet Sixteen
Cougars
see season come to a close after battle with Pac-12 rival.
On Fri,
Dec 7, at 10:02 PM PST from WSU Sports Info
The No. 16 seeded Washington State Cougars (23-10) saw its' 2018 season
come to a close in the Sweet Sixteen round of the NCAA Championship Tournament
Friday evening, against No. 1 seed Stanford in Palo Alto, Calif. Match played in Stanford's Maples Pavilion.
Set scores
from the match were: 17-25, 26-24, 14-25, and 19-25 in favor of the Stanford
Cardinal (31-1).
This NCAA
Championship Tournament Sweet Sixteen match between familiar Pac-12 foes began
just as intense as previous meetings, as this opening set went on to feature
six ties with the score knotted up at 10-10 overall.
Stanford then
began to create multiple small scoring runs to jump ahead of the Cougars,
holding a 22-17 advantage late in the first set of play. Stanford went on to
score three straight points to close out the opening set over the Cougars at
25-17 overall.
Washington
State shot out of the gate in set number two with a 5-0 scoring up to hold down
the early 7-2 lead with some help from Taylor Mims, and Jocelyn Urias kills,
along with an Ella Lajos block. Stanford rallied back to tie the set back up at
12-12 overall after a block gave the Cardinal some momentum.
The Cougars and
the Cardinal traded small leads for the remainder of this set, until Stanford
put together a small scoring run to see the hosts up 21-18 in the set. The
Cougars began making a run of their own with three straight kills from Mims,
Urias, and Claire Martin to pull within one point before Stanford would be forced
to take a timeout. WSU held strong to finish off this set, with blocks from
McKenna Woodford, Martin, and Lajos to see the Cougars take set two over
Stanford and tie up the match at 1-1.
Stanford
countered right from the start of set number three with a 10-2 run to see the
early lead over Washington State. The Cougars had plenty of fight in them,
cutting the Cardinal lead down to six at 15-9, but Stanford continued to keep
the pressure on and hold that lead throughout the set. The Cardinal ultimately
took set three over WSU at 25-14 to reclaim the set advantage in the match as
well.
The
regional host once again started off a set on a big run as Stanford held the
7-1 advantage over the Cougars early in game number four. Washington State
continued to fight, closing the scoring gap to just two points at 11-9 as
multiple errors from the Cardinal, and kills from Urias, and Mims helped fuel
WSU. Stanford began to take control of the fourth set with a 5-1 run to surge
ahead to a 23-17 lead, and ultimately claimed the round over the Cougars at
25-19 to take the match.
STAT OF
THE MATCH
Senior
Claire Martin totaled 10 blocks in the contest, tying her season-high she
previously recorded earlier this year against No. 17 Northern Iowa on the road.
NOTES
Senior
Taylor Mims led the offensive attack with 17 kills in the contest. Mims also
recorded a double-double, adding 10 digs to her stat sheet.
Senior
Ella Lajos aided Martin in the blocking game with eight overall. Lajos tallied
six kills in the match as well.
Ashley
Brown posted her 18th double-double of the year with a team-high 35 assists,
and added 10 digs.
Alexis
Dirige anchored the defensive ground game once again with 21 total digs, her
12th match with 20 or more digs.
::::::::::::::::::::::
VOLLEYBALL:
Palo Alto Regional: Stanford 3, Washington State 1
From
ESPN.com
Stanford
advances to 31-1 on the season after handily defeating Washington State 3-1 in
the Regional Semifinal.
The No. 1
overall seed was pushed to four sets, but Stanford topped Washington State for
the third time this season to advance to the Palo Alto Regional final against
No. 8 Penn State.
Saturday's
final will feature volleyball royalty. Stanford has won seven national titles,
most recently in 2016, and Penn State has also won seven, most recently in
2014. No team has won more. Penn State leads the all-time series 12-10, but
Stanford swept the lone matchup this season on Sept. 7. Saturday's winner books
a spot in the final four in Minneapolis.
Kathryn
Plummer, the 2017 espnW player of the year, led Stanford on Friday with 24
kills and 12 digs, while Tami Alade added 12 kills and nine blocks. Alade hit
.632 and did not have a hitting error.
Stanford
looked dominant in the first set and opened with a 25-17 win. The Cougars
rallied in the second for a 26-24 victory. But it was all Cardinal in the third
(25-14) and fourth (25-19). Washington State (23-10) was led by Taylor Mims
with 17 kills and 10 digs.
Stanford
(31-1) has won 29 straight and is 16-0 at home this season.
::::::::::
Pac-12
leads the Power Five in minority head football coaches…
Hotline
newsletter: Dominating the Power Five in one vital regard, targeting data,
salaries for assistants, contracts, payrolls and more
By Jon
Wilner, Pac-12 Hotline, San Jose Merc News, Dec 7 2018
Leading the
way
The Pac-12
has been routinely criticized (here, there and everywhere) for its performance
on the field and off over the past year. But there is at least one area — one
very important area — in which the conference is crushing its Power Five
competition.
Minority
hires at the top of the football org chart.
Mel
Tucker, introduced by Colorado earlier this week, becomes the fourth African
American head coach currently employed in the conference (and the third hired
in the past year).
Four.
Out of 12.
That
constitutes 40 percent of the black coaches in the Power Five — only two less
than the combined total of the ACC, SEC, Big 12 and Big Ten.
ACC
Total: 2
out of 14 schools
Percentage:
14.3
Syracuse’s
Dino Babers and Florida State’s Willie Taggart
Big 12
Total: 0
out of 10 schools
Big Ten
Total: 3
out of 14 schools
Percentage:
21.4
Coaches:
Illinois’ Lovie Smith, Maryland’s Mike Locksley and Penn State’s James Franklin
Pac-12
Total:
four out of 12 schools
Percentage:
33.3
Coaches:
Arizona’s Kevin Sumlin, ASU’s Herm Edwards, Stanford’s David Shaw and
Colorado’s Tucker
SEC
Total: one
out of 14 schools
Percentage:
7.1
We’d love
to identify a specific trend that underpins the hiring decisions in the Pac-12
— and then spread the word — but the situations on the campuses and backgrounds
of the coaches are all so different:
Edwards
was doing TV when ASU called.
Sumlin was
unemployed.
Shaw was
promoted from within.
Tucker was
hired away off Georgia’s staff.
Clearly,
access to decision makers, as Shaw noted in a USA Today article earlier this
season, is vital.
The
Hotline believes substantial and lasting change in the diversity of head
coaches across the Power Five won’t take hold until the majority of athletic
directors and presidents will have come of age in the post-civil rights era.
(We’re approaching that point, it seems.)
Nor can we
identify a thread connecting the dynamics at the four Pac-12 schools when the
current hires were made.
Yes, each
school could say that Shaw/Edwards/Sumlin/Tucker was the best candidate, the
best fit for the job. But what constitutes that fit is the key, and it’s
determined by the individual athletic directors and presidents.
Absent any
sweeping conclusions, we’ll simply appreciate the decisions and hope other
Power Fives take the Pac-12’s lead.
::::::::::
FOOTBALL
TICKET
SALES: WSU Alamo Bowl sales tepid, while Iowa State soars
By Barry
Bolton, Cougfan.com
Dec 5,
7:20 PM
REMEMBER
THE ALAMO BOWL? Washington State fans apparently didn’t get the memo – and they
figure to be seriously outnumbered when WSU faces off against Iowa State on
Dec. 28 in the Alamo Dome. As of late Wednesday, WSU had sold just 2,400 of its
12,000 ticket allotment, SID Bill Stevens said.
Iowa State, meanwhile, is facing no such lack of enthusiasm.
Indeed,
Iowa State has already sold out its 12,000 ticket allotment, AD Jamie Pollard
tweeted out today.
Alamo Bowl
tickets went on sale through WSU to the general public on Tuesday. Prior to that that, reservations for CAF
members and season ticket holders had been ongoing.
Any unsold
tickets from WSU’s allotment have to be purchased by the school -- with the
Pac-12 subsidizing up to half of unpurchased tickets for its teams in
contracted bowls.
When it
comes to selling bowl game tickets, the first 24-48 hours usually see the most
activity. For the Cougs’ Holiday Bowl
appearance in 2016, WSU sold out its 7,000 allotment in 48 hours.
Related:
Gardner Minshew says to fans let's quit pouting, let's win Alamo
The Alamo
Bowl payout to the Pac-12 is $3.825 million but it is not uncommon for schools
to break even or lose money on most bowl games given the level of expenses
involved. Flight, hotel and meal costs add up quickly for a group the size WSU
figures to bring to San Antonio.
The money
every Pac-12 team earns from its respective bowl goes to the conference, where
it is pooled. All bowl expenses are then deducted from the total and the
remaining money is split equally 13 ways, with 12 shares going to each member
school and one share going to the Pac-12 office. To purchase tickets and for
more information, click here.
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