Taylor Landfair, a redshirt sophomore, had 16 kills and seven digs, and two freshmen, Mckenna Wucherer and Carter Booth had career-highs in kills as the No. 6 Gophers beat Washington State 25-16, 25-13, 24-26, 25-20 on Saturday night on the final day of the Diet Coke Classic volleyball tournament at Maturi Pavilion.
Wucherer, a 6-1 outside hitter, had 15 kills, the final one on match point, and hit .520. Booth, a 6-7 middle blocker, added 12 kills and hit .524.
Minnesota (5-3) was coming off back-to-back 3-1 home losses to No. 9 Stanford last weekend and No. 22 Pepperdine on Thursday.
Melani Shaffmaster had 44 assists for the Gophers and Jenna Wenaas had 10 digs.
The Gophers hit .364, the Cougars (8-3), led by Lauren Jansen's 16 kills, hit .192.
Minnesota will open its Big Ten season next weekend against Purdue at 7 p.m. Friday in West Lafayette, Ind. Then Gophers will host defending NCAA champion Wisconsin at 7 p.m. next Sunday.
Etc.
• The Gophers tennis team went 7-0 in singles and 5-3 in doubles on the second day of three in the six-team Gopher Invitational at the Baseline Tennis Center.
