Box Score | Gonzaga Invitational Tournament Central

SPOKANE, Wash.--The Gonzaga University volleyball team made quick work of its Wyoming foes Friday night, sweeping past the Cowgirls in three sets during the first match of the Gonzaga Invitational, held at the Martin Centre on GU's campus.

The Bulldogs (3-1) won handily with set scores of 25-17, 25-16, and 25-22. They proved to be efficient on offense, hitting an impressive.340 as a team throughout the match and posting sideout percentages above 80 in both of the first two sets. Only one player reached double-digit kills - redshirt senior Savannah Blinn posted 17 - but six of the seven different Zags to post a kill hit above .290. Senior setter Lauren Joseph was 3-for-4 on her attack attempts, and sophomore middle blocker Kaylie Loewen hit .667 with seven kills, many of them finishing Wyoming digs that found their way over the net.

The Zags opened the match by taking a 5-1 lead in the first set, powered by four kills from Blinn. GU maintained at least a two-point lead for the rest of the set, which was capped off by a 6-1 run largely on the service of junior Emmy Allen. Allen served up two aces during the stretch along with the frame-ending kill, while Loewen added two kills at the end of the frame.

In the second set, the Zags used a three-point run to take an 8-4 lead and never looked back, opening numerous eight-point leads during the frame before winning it by nine. The Zags were most efficient during the second set, hitting .346 as a squad. The Bulldog defense, meanwhile, forced Wyoming into a negative hit percentage and blocked two of the Cowgirl shots that did make it over the net.

After the intermission, the third set was much closer than the first two, but Gonzaga again prevailed in a frame that saw five lead changes and 11 tie scores. Both sides traded leads until the Cowgirls saw themselves with a 19-21 advantage, but Gonzaga stiffened up to end the set on another 6-1 run for the 25-22 victory. Four different Zags scored kills during that run with Allen again finishing off the set with a kill.

Bulldog Bites

• Junior Morgan Douglass was recorded with 11 digs and two assists, and the libero impressed head coach Dave Gantt with consistent play throughout the night. "She did a really nice job of settling her game down and making the basic plays we need her to make. We expect the fundamental stuff to be pretty solid, and she did a nice job of tweaking her game to put that out on a bigger stage," he said of Douglass' night.
• The Zags' .340 hit percentage (49 kills, 15 errors, 100 attacks) was the highest of the season by 60 points and the highest in nearly a year. They last hit better Sept. 6 versus Canisius - also a Gonzaga Invitational matchup - when they hit a blistering .421 with 55 kills and just 10 errors in 107 attempts.
• Blinn's 17 kills versus Wyoming were the most by any Zag in a three-set match since she tallied 19 in 2012 versus BYU. Her overall career high of 32 kills - in any match, three sets or five - came last season at Wyoming. She's played the Cowgirls twice in her career and is averaging 6.375 kills per set against them.
• Douglass' 11 digs led all players, but just one off the libero's pace was freshman Tiyana Hallums with 10. The outside hitter from Honolulu earned her first career start Friday night, doubling her season dig total while manning the back row.
• Utah beat Montana 3-1 in the other match of the night. Utah and GU are tied atop the Gonzaga Invitational standings.

Zag Speak
Thoughts from GU head coach Dave Gantt:
"What I liked about that match was we put the details that would make it look like [this match did] into our system. We can do that, but unless the players intentionally make that a part of their game, it doesn't work well. I just have to commend everyone on the roster as to how we recovered from last weekend and put some detail into our game. I'm really pleased with that, and it's hugely validating to every one of them."

"I liked our personality tonight, especially in the third set. I liked that we kept fighting and that we didn't really give up runs of points other than in the early part of it. We hung around and hung around and hung around, and we got our rhythm back a bit and won enough points and all of a sudden it was done. We just kept pushing back, and if you want to be a good team, you have to do that."

"Wyoming's a good team; we just played well. We knew as coaches they would push back in the third set, and they did. We just settled in and got stubborn when we needed to."

Next Up:
The Zags will finish off the Gonzaga Invitational with two matches on Saturday, Sept. 5. They open the day with a 10:00 a.m. matchup against Montana, and they'll close out the tournament with a 7:00 p.m. contest against Utah. Both matches will again take place at the Martin Centre.