WSU’s stellar volleyball season comes to a close

PITTSBURGH — Washington State’s sweet, sweet season came to a close in the Sweet 16 on Thursday.

The No. 10 Cougars (26-8) couldn’t overcome No. 4 Pitt’s top-knotch serving and blocking in a 25-20, 25-13, 25-16 loss to the Panthers (28-4) on their opponent’s home court in the third round of the NCAA volleyball tournament.

Thus ended a WSU season that featured the most wins in an already illustrious coaching career for coach Jen Greeny, a plethora of program records and a statement-making conclusion to a Pac-12 season that is the last for a historic volleyball conference before 10 schools leave next year.

“Tough day today. Pitt is a quality team so congratulations to them on moving on,” Greeny said. “We didn’t have our best day and that happens sometimes. But overall really, really proud of this team and what we’ve done.”

Senior outside hitter Iman Isanovic led WSU with a team-high eight kills on a day no Cougar reached double figures in kills and the team was held to a season-low .141 hitting percentage.

Pitt racked up 19 block assists and eight service aces in the short sweep, led by freshman Olivia Babcock with 15 kills, five blocks and four aces.

Pitt pulls no punches

A Final Four team each of the last two years and an Elite Eight competitor before that, Pitt looked the part of an experienced NCAA tourney team from the opening serve.

The Cougars, to their credit, stayed in step with the home team throughout the first set.

Pitt led just 21-20 after an Isanovic kill, but the Panthers closed out the set on a 4-0 run, sealed with a pair of aces from outside hitter Cat Flood.

Pitt used that momentum to pull away in the second and third sets, bursting out to an 8-1 lead in the second and 9-2 advantage in the third in the eventual sweep.

Emma Monks, who was fourth in the NCAA in blocks per set going in, had five blocks to add to her resume for Pitt. Torrey Stafford added 10 kills for the Panthers.

“They do a really nice job of getting into your air space, penetrating the net, and it was tough for our hitters to find some openings,” Greeny said.

A season of records

Despite its season-low hitting in its final match, WSU still finished the season with a program record .289 team hitting percentage.

Some other WSU records this year:

— Senior outside hitter Pia Timmer’s two aces Thursday moved her to No. 1 all-time at WSU with 151.

— Senior middle blocker Magda Jehlarova became the NCAA rally-scoring blocks leader and Pac-12 all-time blocks leader earlier in the tournament, finishing her career with 769.

— WSU was the lone Pac-12 team to make eight straight NCAA tournaments.

“Just one for the record books, probably. A lot of these fifth-year seniors broke tons of records,” Greeny said before acknowledging Timmer’s record and shaking her players hand as she sat next to her. “They wrote their name in a lot of record books, so just really proud of them.”

What’s next for WSU

A perennial power in the always-tough Pac-12 Conference, the WSU volleyball team faces an uncertain future without a schedule or conference next season.

USC, UCLA, Stanford, Cal, Oregon, Washington, Colorado and Utah are all leaving the conference next year.

On top of that, WSU will lose eight standout players in libero Karly Basham, Isanovic, defensive specialist Peyton Claus, Timmer, defensive specialist Julia Norville, Jehlarova, outside hitter Weronika Wojdyla and middle blocker Lana Radakovic.

“We’re going to do everything in our power to just keep doing what we do as Washington State volleyball and that is eight straight NCAA appearances,” Greeny said. “We’re going to coach the same way, we’re going to recruit the same way.

“Even though we’re not sure who we’re playing, as a volleyball program, I think we belong in a Power Five conference for sure. ... It’s sad to not have that conference anymore for sure.”