Box Score

SPOKANE, Wash.-The Gonzaga volleyball team saw its four-match West Coast Conference winning streak snapped Thursday, dropping a hard-fought three-setter to No. 5 San Diego in the Martin Centre.

There was little separation between the two teams in the first set. The frame featured 13 tie scores, and neither team strung together more than three consecutive points. Gonzaga held the advantage through most of it, but the Toreros took a tenuous 21-20 lead after three points in a row. The Bulldogs evened the frame with a sideout, and after trading points for a bit, fought off a set point with a kill from Imani Wimbush. USD countered with the next two points, the final coming on a strong serve from Kaity Edwards.

San Diego took an early lead in the second set, but the Zags battled for much of the frame. Down seven at 11-4, they rolled off five straight points, earning a sideout off a block from Wimbush and Katelyn Oppio for the serve. Then Sarah Bradley and Emmy Allen landed two kills apiece to pull within two. The Bulldogs maintained that margin for the next few points with another block and pair of kills from Tiyana Hallums. Three straight USD points, however, gave the Toreros a five-point lead, and they took the set by six at 25-19.

The third set was also tightly contested in the beginning. San Diego would run off a few points in a row, but the Bulldogs kept clawing back, tying the frame at 3-all, coming within two at 12-10, and using a 3-0 run to come within one at 17-16. At that point, Gonzaga's momentum ran out and the Toreros took the set 25-16 and the match 3-0.

Bulldog Bites:

• The contest pit Gonzaga senior libero Morgan Douglass against her sister, Payton, a freshman on the San Diego roster. It's the first time the two Spokane natives played against each other, and they did so in front of a vocal crowd of 808, more than 100 of them affiliated with the Douglass family in some way.
• With her sister in town, Morgan played the entire match as Gonzaga's libero, earning her first start of the season. She led all players with 12 digs to equal a season high and set one with seven assists. Seven of her digs came in the first set, and she also landed an ace in the third.
• Wimbush led the Zags with 10 kills on 24 hits, good for a .417 attack percentage. It was her third conference match with a .400 hitting mark or better, posting a .600 against Santa Clara and .412 versus San Francisco. She leads the squad's hitters with a .284 attack percentage during the team's seven conference matches, averaging 2.36 kills per set while doing so.
• With the loss, the Zags saw their four-match win streak snapped. It was their second four-gamer of the season after opening the year with four consecutive wins and second entirely in WCC play since 1994.

Zag Speak:

• "We learned we can compete with this team…but I feel like we lost some steam, and they used it to their advantage. We played with a lot of heart, but it just took the steam out of us."
• "They tasted what it's like to compete at this level. We have to do it every point all the way to the very end. They get BYU in two days; they don't have to wait a week to play. We have to put some work in tomorrow to be ready to do this more consistently…we want them to be hungry to play again, and I think coming off this, they are."

Next Up:

Gonzaga (11-6, 4-3 WCC) will look to start a new win streak Saturday, Oct. 15, when they host No. 11 BYU. That contest will begin at Noon at the Martin Centre.