Qualifier
Wazzu keeps Qualifier in one place: 2 stories so far. The section currently leads with “Cougs wrap Pac-12 tennis qualifier with grit and no regrets” and “Wazzu's hoop squad loads the bus for a Pac-12 road trip north”. The Cougs walked off the court in the Pac-12 tennis qualifier with nothing left in the tank. The Coug women's basketball team is loading the bus for a Pac-12 trip north. The unofficial read for people who left Pullman and stayed Cougs. The list below is every Qualifier story on Wazzu, newest first.
Cougs wrap Pac-12 tennis qualifier with grit and no regrets
The Cougs walked off the court in the Pac-12 tennis qualifier with nothing left in the tank. That's the kind of finish you respect, whether you're in the stands or watching the score tick over from a bar in Seattle. They didn't get the result they wanted, but nobody hung their head. Grit isn't pretty. It's showing up for the next point when your legs are gone. That's what this team did. There's a certain honesty to a team that plays through the whistle and doesn't make excuses. The qualifier is a grind. It's early, it's tense, and every point matters. Our Cougs handled it like they've been here before, because they have. They lost some battles, but they didn't lose themselves. No drama. No letup. It reminded me of that exhibition win we covered, "No drama, no letup: Cougs handle business in exhibition win", where the approach was the same. Just play the next point. You don't need a trophy to be proud of the effort. This team showed up, competed, and walked away knowing they gave it everything. That's a Coug way to do it. Go Cougs.
Wazzu's hoop squad loads the bus for a Pac-12 road trip north
The Coug women's basketball team is loading the bus for a Pac-12 trip north. That means a cold bus, a colder gym in somebody else's town, and the kind of road test that tells you what a squad is really made of. This group has been steady all season. The rankings have noticed. If you missed it, we just checked in on where they sit nationally in "Coug Women Hold Steady at No. 13, Still Top of the West", worth a read if you like seeing Pullman on a map that people actually look at. That kind of respect doesn't come from beating up on the easy teams. It comes from showing up on the road, in the cold, and winning the kind of game that doesn't make SportsCenter but does make the other side of the Palouse feel a little smaller. Headed north is its own kind of test. The altitude changes. The crowd is hostile. The bus coffee is terrible. But this team has been locked in since fall, and they have the mid-pack finishes and the Hawai'i trip behind them as proof they can handle the miles. Go Cougs. Bring back a win from the north country.