As they gear up to open their NCAA tournament campaign hosting Grand Canyon of Phoenix at 7 p.m. tonight in Bohler Gym, the No. 10 Washington State Cougars are very much at home — and the same cannot be said of their foes.

This is WSU’s eighth consecutive season making the NCAA championships, and represents the Cougs’ first time starting the event on their home court since 2018. Meanwhile, the visiting Lopes (23-7) have reached this stage in the postseason for the first time in program history.

Should Washington State (24-7) register a win against GCU, another home match against either No. 5 Dayton (31-2) or Pepperdine (19-8) will await on Saturday at 7 p.m. back at Bohler.

Homestand hype

The Cougs’ two first-team all-Pac 12 Conference honorees, Magda Jehlarova and Pia Timmer, are fifth-year seniors who have been part of NCAA tournament-qualifying runs every year of their careers, but arrived on the scene just too late to be part of the most recent host bid. Timmer noted at a press conference Thursday that she was “super hyped-up” to bring the national tournament action to the home fans.

“We’re super-excited we get to host the first two rounds,” Jehlarova said. “We know that Bohler gets really packed, gets really loud and I think it’s going to be a huge home-court advantage for us.”

Coach Jen Greeny echoed her players’ sentiments.

“Hosting was one of our main goals this year, and I think that’s really important to be here in Pullman and be home,” she said. “I think being home at Bohler helps us out a lot. We’ve played some big matches here.”

Cougs, Lopes on parallel paths

Following a strong start to the season, Washington State’s prospects for this national tournament and home berth might have looked doubtful when the Cougs endured a slump around a month ago that saw them suffer five defeats in a seven-match span.

They came out of their funk just in time, however, and are currently riding a five-match winning streak heading into Nationals.

“I really think we learned a lot from that adversity we went through,” Timmer said.

Grand Canyon has followed a similar path — the Lopes had dropped two of their first three contests in the month of November before they bounced back to win their last four and cap things off with a first-ever Western Athletic Conference title.

GCU is known as a strong defensive team bolstered by an offensive star in outside hitter Tatum Parrot, who has amassed 478 kills this season — more than twice the total of any other player on the roster.

WSU has shown a significantly more balanced attack, with Timmer leading the way in kills at 387 while Iman Inasovic (364), Katy Ryan (267) and Jehlarova (265) have all been heavy hitters as well. Setter Argentina Ung’s 1,189 assists and Karly Basham’s 389 digs have helped complete the Cougs’ successful winning formula.

Jehlarova set the NCAA career blocks record this year.

“(The Lopes have) got nothing to lose, so they’re just probably going to go all-out,” Jehlarova said. “We’ve just got to stay focused on us, play our game, and I believe that we can make it to the second round.”

Higher ambitions

In the bigger picture, the Cougars very much have their sights set on going at least one step further than that. Washington State has been a remarkably consistent national tournament qualifier, but has also been consistent in a less-flattering manner: It has not progressed past the second round since 2018, before any of the current on-court leadership had joined the roster.

“I think that’s why they all came back — not just Magda and Pia, but everybody else as well,” Greeny said of the Cougs’ desire for the long-awaited deep run at Nationals. Nevertheless, she emphasized that the team will “really just want to go one match at a time, and one point at a time.”