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Oct. 9, 2012
SEATTLE - A drive south to take on the Beavers and Ducks is next in line for the UW volleyball team, as the Huskies look to continue their win streak in a pair of hostile gyms. Washington, ranked second in this week's AVCA Top-25, is off to its best start since the 2009 season with a 15-0 record. At 6-0 in conference play, the Huskies are tied with third-ranked Stanford atop the Pac-12 standings, just one game ahead of fifth-ranked Oregon. First up is a trip to Corvallis to take on Oregon State inside Gill Coliseum. That match tips off at 7 p.m. The next night the Dawgs will face the Ducks in the Matthew Knight Arena also at 7 p.m. That match will be streamed live for free on Pac-12.com Oregon (14-1, 5-1 Pac-12) suffered its first loss of the season in five sets at Stanford last weekend, but neither the Ducks or Beavers have yet to lose at home. Oregon State (12-6, 2-4 Pac-12) has only played at home twice all season. The Beavers are receiving votes in the AVCA poll but are just out of the Top-25. OSU has the distinction of being the only team to defeat No. 1-ranked Penn State this year, as the Beavers won a five-setter at the Chicago Classic. Oregon State also ranks 27th in RPI. Senior Camille Saxton is 10th in the league with 3.82 kills per set, and second with 23 aces, and junior libero Becky Defoe leads the Pac-12 with 5.24 digs per set. The Ducks are a senior-laden squad that has already made history by being ranked a program-best No. 2 this season. They rank third in the Pac-12 with a .290 attack percentage and are second in opponent attack percentage at .166. Senior Alaina Bergsma is second in the Pac-12 with 5.18 kills per set. Junior setter Lauren Plum currently is tops in the NCAA with 12.82 assists per set. Senior Katherine Fischer is second in the Pac-12 with 0.37 aces per set, and senior Haley Jacob is fifth in the league with 4.09 digs per set. The Huskies and Ducks have split the season series the past three years. Incredibly, this year is the fifth time in Jim McLaughlin's 12 years that the Huskies have won their first 15 matches of the year. They started 22-0 in 2004, 23-0 in 2005 in the national title season, 16-0 in 2007, and 15-0 in 2009. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
