Ask Washington: Never say die is more than a cliche

It was the third set in Pullman. Washington State—a huge underdog—won the first two sets, and had two match points.

• Trailing 22-24, with WSU’s Meagan Ganzer serving, Washington’s Bianca Rowland and Kylin Muñoz combined to block WSU’s Jaicee Harris
• Trailing 23-24, with Jenna Orlandini serving, Washington’s Krista Vansant got a kill, one of 25 on the night. WSU called a time out.
• Tied 24-24, Vansant got another kill, once again on a Jenni Nogueras set.
• Leading 25-24, Washington scored its fourth consecutive point—and won the set—on Ganzer’s hitting error.

Washington's Bianca Rowland
[Volleyblog Seattle photo by Leslie Hamann]

Volleyball is one of the few sports where a team can come back literally from the brink to win. When a basketball team is down by 10 with one second remaining, it’s over. Ditto for football, hockey, lacrosse, soccer, etc.

But in volleyball—as in tennis (and, to a certain extent, baseball and softball)—it’s truly never over until it’s over.

Washington hung on to win set four, then utterly steamrolled the Cougars to win set five.

Over her past ten matches, Rowland a senior middle blocker, is hitting a torrid.457 (97 kills/13 errors/184 attempts). Her coach, Jim McLaughlin, says she ought to get plenty of votes as a first-team All-American. Considering she’s also one of the nation’s leading blockers, that’s not such an unreasonable observation.

Rowland’s teammates put up some pretty impressive offensive numbers in two matches this week against their rivals: