by COLUMBUS, Ohio – Washington Volleyball won its season-opener for the 19th time in the past 20 years today, knocking off the Ohio Bobcats in straight sets at Nationwide Arena. The fourth-ranked Huskies (1-0) were able to see fourteen players take the court and the team maintained an efficient attack on the way to a 25-21, 25-20, 25-14 victory.
Washington will now prepare for a big early season test on Saturday against 11th-ranked Ohio State on the same Nationwide Arena floor that will host the Final Four at the end of the road this season. First serve against the Buckeyes tomorrow will be 4 p.m. Pacific.
Today, the Huskies put their 2021 spring Final Four appearance in the rearview mirror and began working on a new script, though with many of the usual suspects involved. Fourth-year All-American Claire Hoffman was the offensive driver today with 13 kills and no errors on 22 swings, hitting .591. Fourth-year All-American setter Ella May Powell led the team in assists as well as digs, with 27 assists and 11 digs.
Second-year Madi Endsley was an efficient seven kills on 10 swings with just one error for a .600 percentage, and middle blocker Marin Grote killed six of eight attempts to hit .750.
Head Coach Keegan Cook said he was able able to stay with his script, “which can be hard to do in your first match of the season. I really enjoyed seeing such a large number of athletes compete; different lineups in every set. Some moments of adversity in the first and second sets but some nice responses by the group.”
Washington hit .382 for the match compared to a .258 mark for the Bobcats, and UW served up nine aces and missed just six serves while also holding a 38-27 edge in digs and a 4.0 to 1.0 edge in blocks.
Two Huskies made their collegiate debuts, as second-year outside hitter Emoni Bush started in the second set and had two kills and two aces. First-year defender Lauren Bays played sets two and three and had a pair of digs.
UP NEXT: Two of the last 16 teams in last spring’s NCAA tournament meet tomorrow as the Huskies face No. 11 Ohio State at 4 p.m. Pacific time, streamed online via BTN+.
SET 2: Washington brought Emoni Bush and Lauren Bays in to start set two. Ohio, however, came out hot and build a 6-1 lead over UW. Drechsel served the Huskies on a big 7-0 run to get back into the set, with consecutive aces during the run. The first two kills of Bush’s Husky career put the Dawgs up, 10-9, and forced a Bobcats timeout. Ohio responded with three in a row out of the break, but UW answered in kind. An ace from Bush put the Huskies back up, 13-12 and she soon followed with a second for 15-12. Powell saved a dig from flying out around the net post, redirecting it with one hand in for a kill to make it 17-13, and Ohio called time. Ohio got within one point at 20-19, but Grote finished two straight slide kills and then an Ohio setting error made it 23-19. Two Ohio errors ended the set, 25-20, for the Huskies.
The Huskies were outhit in the set, .273 to .172, but UW had four aces and no missed serves, compared to two aces and three errors by Ohio, plus a couple ball-handling errors.
