Sept. 18, 1999

PULLMAN, Wash. - The University of California women's volleyball team (4-3, 1-1) saw its Pac-10 record go to 1-1 with a 3-1 (15-12, 15-11, 14-16, 15-3) loss at Washington State Saturday evening at the Beasley Coliseum on the WSU campus.

"The team is still learning how to win," said head coach Rich Feller. "They need to know that they can take another team to the end and win. We still were highly competitive in the first three games and in the final game we just ran out of gas. We had some good individual efforts."

Despite the loss, Cal finished the weekend on a positive as it defeated Washington, 3-1, Friday night in Seattle and was competitive in three of the four games against Washington State. Against the Cougars, the Bears were led by senior outside hitter Brook Coulter and senior middle blocker Kellie Alva with 15 kills apiece. Coulter also led Cal with 17 digs.

Game one went back and forth until the two teams were tied, 10-10. Washington State then went on a 3-0 run to get a 13-10 cushion. Cal was able to get within 14-12 before the Cougars Joy Sperry's final kill made it 15-12, WSU. Junior outside hitter Laurel Kokaska led the Bears with five kills in game one.

The second game was also close. The Bears came from a 12-8 deficit to make the score 12-11 on kills by Coulter and Alva, and a block by sophomore setter Candace McNamee. But, that was as close as Cal could get as Washington State scored the next three points for the 15-11 win.

Cal showed some resiliency and extended the match by battling back to win game three, 16-14. With the Bears trailing 14-13, Coulter got a kill to give Cal the side out and then tallied another kill to tie the match, 14-14. The Bears were finally able to control the game when two Cougar mistakes gave Cal the 16-14 win.

The Bears ran out of gas and struggled in the fourth game, losing 15-3. Cal fell behind 12-1 and was only able to make a 2-0 run to get as close as 12-3 before Washington State won the match.

Cal will next host No. 7 ranked Stanford, Tuesday, Sept. 21 at 7 p.m. at the Recreational Sports Facility in Berkeley before traveling to Stanford for the Pac-10-Mountain West Challenge Sept. 24-25 at Maples Pavilion. The Bears will play No. 12 ranked BYU on Sept. 24 at 5:30 p.m. and Utah on Sept. 25 at 5 p.m.