Dawgs Bounce Back In Another Fifth Set

Saturday, August 30

Fort Collins, Colo.

5:00 PM

University of Washington

1-1,0-0Big Ten

Colorado State

1-1,0-0Mountain West

Washington

Colorado St.

August 30, 2025 | Volleyball

Box Score Box Score PDF

By: UW Athletic Communications

FORT COLLINS, Colo. – Just two days into the season and the Husky volleyball team can already say "lesson learned." One night after falling in five sets and missing out on a couple match point chances in a season-opening setback, UW went into a different hostile gym against another vocal crowd, and came out with a fifth-set triumph. Washington (1-1) beat defending Mountain West Conference champion Colorado State 20-25, 25-23, 26-24, 14-25, 15-11 in front of 4,317 fans at Moby Arena.

In the back-and-forth battle, the Huskies dug out of a nine-point deficit to win set three, saving two set points to go up 2-1 instead of down 1-2. Shrugging off a frustrating fourth set, the Huskies jumped out to a 6-0 lead in set five and pushed it to 9-2 and 13-5 before holding off a last ditch run by the Rams (1-1) in a battle between two 2024 NCAA tourney qualifiers.

"Going into this match we had two things we wanted to be good at," said Head Coach Leslie Gabriel. "We wanted to win the serve and pass game, and slow down their outside hitters, because we didn't do a good job of that last night. We were able to do that in stretches, and we played winning volleyball when we did that. We still have a lot to work on, but to be able to pull out a win in an environment like they had tonight at Colorado State was good progress."

Okay @UW_Football your turn…

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— Washington Volleyball (@UWVolleyball) August 31, 2025

The Huskies won despite most stats in the overall leaning towards Colorado State. Much of that was due to the struggles in set four. But CSU hit .254 overall compared to just .143 for the match for the Huskies. But in the all-important set five, Washington hit .412 with eight kills and just one error, while the Rams were held to .059.

Washington also had a key edge at the service line with 11 aces to eight for Colorado State. UW also led in blocks, 11 to 10, while CSU led in digs, 57-51.

Three Huskies finished with double-figure kills: Kierstyn Barton with 14, Alexa Markley with 11, and Addy Benefield with 10 for her first double-figure total. Markley added a career-high 15 digs for her second-straight double-double. Sophomore Alexis Haury had a career-high 40 assists plus nine digs and a career-high four blocks. Julia Hunt had six kills and was one off her career-high with five aces. Katy Wessels had seven kills, hitting .357, and had five blocks, and Zoria Heard posted 14 digs with two aces.

Set three turned things as UW dug out of a nine-point deficit, trailing 6-15 at one point. Freshman Simona Mateska had her first two career aces in a key stretch to make it 17-20. The Rams still got two set point chances at 22-24, but Markley saved the first with a missile and then Wessels stuffed back a CSU swing to even it up at 24-all. Julia Hunt then fired a serve that was shanked back into the seats to put UW up one, and Hunt went back and rinsed and repeated an ace to the same spot to give the Dawgs the 26-24 win.

Hunt's serve keyed UW's early run in the fifth set as well. After a kill by Barton on the first rally, Hunt served a five-point Husky binge that burned through both Colorado State timeouts. Heard had another key ace to keep separation at 11-4. A big block by Hunt and Haury got the Dawgs to match point at 14-8. The Rams saved three chances but Hunt put down a quick set from Haury to end it, 15-11.

?? The set two clincher! Alexis ?? Addy pic.twitter.com/FzadUgKfTE
— Washington Volleyball (@UWVolleyball) August 31, 2025

Up Next: Washington will head back to Greeley from Fort Collins where it will take on Colgate, the 2024 Patriot League champs, at 10 a.m. Pacific time on Sunday to wrap up the opening weekend.