WSU volleyball gains seventh straight NCAA tourney bid
Nov. 28—For the seventh consecutive season, the Washington State volleyball team is off to the NCAA tournament.
The Cougars found out almost halfway through Sunday's selection show that they will be playing UNLV in the first round of the tournament 5 p.m. Thursday at San Diego's Jenny Craig Pavilion.
Washington State (22-9), ranked No. 25 in the latest American Volleyball Coaches Association poll, finished third in the Pac-12 this season. It is the first time the Cougars have finished that high in the conference in 20 years, when WSU tied for third with Arizona under former coach Cindy Frederick.
The Rebels (26-4) dominated the Mountain West Conference for the majority of the season. The lone blemish on a 17-1 conference mark came Thursday when they fell 25-18, 25-23, 25-21 to Utah State in the title match in Fort Collins, Colo.
The winner will take on either second-seeded San Diego (27-1) or Northern Colorado (22-8) at 10:30 p.m. Saturday in a second-round match.
Washington State is led by Jen Greeny. The 12th-year coach, who played as a middle blocker with the Cougars from 1995-98 and was the coach at Lewis-Clark State from 2007-10, is 208-166 in her time on the Palouse.
UNLV is led by Dawn Sullivan. In her fifth year in the program, the Mountain West coach of the year in 2021 is 109-37.
This season, the Cougars are averaging 13.38 kills, 12.21 assists and 12.56 digs per set with a .281 attack percentage. Meanwhile, UNLV is averaging 13.8 kills (good enough for 34th nationally), 12.62 assists (48th in the nation) and 14.31 digs per set with a .261 hitting percentage.
The offense for Washington State revolves around senior outside hitters Laura Jansen and Pia Timmer, along with sophomore opposite-side hitter Katy Ryan.
Jansen, a 6-foot-0 transfer from Arkansas-Little Rock, led the Cougars in kills with 350 and kills per set at 3.51 with a .269 attack percentage. She also had 230 digs (2.07 per set).
Timmer, at 6-2 and was a 2021 AVCA honorable mention All-American, added 381 kills (3.46 per set) with 217 digs (1.97 per set).
Ryan, at 6-5 and a member of the Pac-12 freshman team a year ago, added 272 kills (2.43 per set) with 93 total blocks (0.83 per set).
Manning the middle is senior middle blocker Magda Jehlarova. The 6-3 two-time All-American has 274 kills (2.45 per set) and is seventh in the nation with 168 total blocks (1.5 per set, eighth nationally).
Setting up the offense is 6-0 junior Argentina Ung. She has 1,132 total assists this season (44th in the nation) to average 10.11 per set.
For UNLV, the offense is centered on junior outside hitters Isabel Martin and Gabrielle Arretche-Ramos.
Martin, a 6-0 transfer from Hillsboro Community College in Tampa, Fla., has 425 kills and average of 3.90 per set. She also has 264 digs for an average of 2.42 per set.
Arretche-Ramos, standing at 6-2 and also plays at right-side hitter, had 392 kills for a 3.63 average per set.
In the middle will be Jordyn Freeman. The 6-2 junior middle blocker has 89 total kills for an average of 0.95 per set.
Setting up the offense is senior Jhenna Gabriel. The 5-8 senior transfer from Texas has 1,113 total assists to rank 49th nationally and averages 10.40 per set (40th in the nation).
Walden may be reached at (208) 848-2258, dwalden@lmtribune.com, or on Twitter at @waldo9939.
