Nov. 9, 2010
Complete Release in PDF Format 
FRIDAY, NOV. 12 • HEC EDMUNDSON PAVILION
#11 Washington vs. #4 California • 7:00 p.m.
Live Chat, Live Video and Gametracker available on GoHuskies.com
SATURDAY, NOV. 13 • HEC EDMUNDSON PAVILION
#11 Washington vs. #2 Stanford • 7:00 p.m.
Live Chat, Live Video and Gametracker available on GoHuskies.com
SETTING THE SCENE
As the regular season heads towards its climax, the 11th-ranked Husky volleyball team returns home for a weekend of major importance, as UW hosts 4th-ranked California and 2nd-ranked Stanford on consecutive nights. The Bears and Cardinal are currently tied for the Pac-10 lead and the Huskies would like nothing more than to close the gap at Hec Edmundson Pavilion, where UW has not lost this year.
Washington (18-5, 7-5 Pac-10) is coming off a 3-0 win over Washington State and now has four of the final six matches left in the regular season in the comforts of home. In three of those four home matches, the Huskies will be looking for payback from a previous road defeat, including against each of the Bay Area schools. Stanford hung on for a 3-1 win in Palo Alto after the Huskies frustratingly missed out on seven set points in the fourth set that would have forced a decisive fifth. Cal is the only team to beat the Huskies in straight sets this year.
The match with Cal is up first on Friday, Nov. 12, at 7 p.m. then Stanford is in town on Saturday, Nov. 13, with another 7 p.m. start.
WHAT JUST HAPPENED?!
The Huskies broke a road funk with a 3-0 win in Pullman last Friday, completing a season sweep of the cross-state rival Cougars. Senior All-American Kindra Carlson provided the offensive punch with 15 kills as UW took the match, 25-17, 25-16, 25-23. Washington outhit Washington State, .316-.114, and led 8.0-4.0 in blocks and 51-35 in digs. Carlson had one of her best nights of the season, posting a match-high 15 kills while hitting .583 (one error in 24 attacks), her second-best percentage this year. She added 10 digs for her fourth double-double of the season. Fellow senior Becky Perry added 11 kills and senior Jenna Hagglund handed out 34 assists. Redshirt freshman Jenna Orlandini had 14 digs from her libero spot.
SEATTLE PREPARES FOR NCAA REGIONAL
Husky fans can now purchase their tickets for the 2010 NCAA Division-I Volleyball Championship Regional, which will be hosted by Washington at Hec Edmundson Pavilion on December 10-11. The Seattle Regional is one of four sites for the 2010 tournament, and will feature two Round of 16 matches on December 10 and then the Quarterfinal on December 11 with the winner moving on to the Final Four in Kansas City, Missouri. This will be the fourth time that Washington has hosted NCAA Regionals since 2004. In the six NCAA regional games it has hosted, the UW has averaged nearly 5,500 fans per session. Washington has made it through the first two rounds of tourney play to reach their own home court each of the three previous times Seattle has hosted Regionals. Visit GoHuskies.com for ticket details or call the ticket office at (206) 543-2200.
HAGGLUND NAMED CLASS AWARD FINALIST
Jenna Hagglund has been named one of the 10 finalists for the inaugural Lowe's Senior CLASS Award, which honors seniors that have excelled in the areas of community, classroom, character and competition. Hagglund needs help from Husky fans to win the award, as a fan vote accounts for one third of the final decision. Fans should go to www.seniorCLASSaward.com to vote as often as once per day through Nov. 23. The West Chester, Ohio native was chosen from an initial list of 30 seniors. An acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School, the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award focuses on the total student-athlete and encourages students to use their platform in athletics to make a positive impact as leaders in their communities. Hagglund is one of three Pac-10 student-athletes nominated, along with Alix Klineman of Stanford and Carli Lloyd of California.
ALL HOME MATCHES ARE ONDEMAND
If you miss any of Washington's home matches this year, or just want to relive the action or a particular play, remember that every match is available to watch on Comcast OnDemand. The video is taken from the GoHuskies.com live stream with all the accoutrements of your typical television broadcast. Jack Hamann and former Husky Carolyn Farny call the action on the live stream and OnDemand. To find the Huskies, start under "Get Local" or "Sports & Fitness" then "Local Sports" followed by "UW" and then "Volleyball."
SCOUTING THE GOLDEN BEARS
California is tied for the Pac-10 lead with an 11-2 record, and has gone 21-2 overall to rank fourth in the country. Both of Cal's losses have come against USC, including a 3-1 upset this past weekend in Berkeley. Cal came back and held off UCLA, 3-2, on Saturday. This week the Bears are ranked fourth after being ranked No. 2 the past couple weeks. The Bears rank second in the Pac-10 in both hitting percentage (.311) and opponent hitting percentage (.165). Junior Tarah Murrey has been one of the league's top hitters all season, ranking second in the Pac-10 and fourth in the NCAA with 5.18 kills per set while hitting .335. Cal is also ranked No. 2 in the nation in team blocks per set at 3.06 behind only Nebraska. Sophomore Kat Brown leads the league with 1.39 blocks/set and sophomore Shannon Hawari is fourth with 1.16. Hawari also is second in the Pac-10 with a .407 hitting percentage. All-American senior setter Carli Lloyd runs the show, and ranks eighth in Pac-10 history in career assists with 5,227. In the first meeting between the Huskies and Bears this season, Cal gave UW its only three-set loss of the year, 25-22, 25-22, 25-18. Cal hit .288 and held UW to just .195, one of just three times UW hit under .200. Murrey had 19 kills for Cal while Bianca Rowland was UW's best option with 10 kills and a .375 percentage.
SCOUTING THE CARDINAL
Stanford moved back into a tie for the conference lead this past weekend with a 3-1 win over UCLA and an impressive sweep over USC on Sunday. The Cardinal moved back up to No. 2 in the rankings, the top spot among Pac-10 teams. Stanford was ranked No. 1 for several weeks earlier this season. They continue to be led by senior Alix Klineman, who is second in the country in kills per set with 5.58 while hitting .379 for the year. In conference only matches, Klineman has upped that to 6.04 kills and a .384 mark. Klineman is just one of three senior All-Americans along with Cassidy Licthman and Gabi Ailes. Licthman was just named Pac-10 Player of the Week, and Ailes leads the Pac-10 in digs with 4.62 per set. Stanford leads the Pac-10 and the NCAA with a .319 attack percentage, and also leads the Pac-10 in kills (1.493) and assists (14.07) per set and is second in blocks per set at 2.61 and digs per set at 15.17. When UW traveled to Palo Alto earlier this season, Washington lost in an historic fourth set that saw the Huskies miss out on seven set points, as Klineman got one side out after another and Stanford eventually came through. Klineman's eye-popping numbers finished at 32 kills and a .500 attack percentage, while Becky Perry was brilliant with 24 kills and a .388 mark. Washington swept Stanford in Seattle last year.
HUSKIES IN THE NATIONAL RANKINGS
Washington stayed at No. 11 in both the AVCA poll and the Volleyball Magazing poll this week, just their second week out of the Top-10. Washington is one of five Pac-10 teams among the top-11 in the AVCA rankings. Stanford moved back up to No. 2 this week with Cal coming in at No. 4. USC checks in at No. 7, with UCLA at No. 10, and UW at No. 11. Arizona is 20th and Oregon is now 23rd, making for seven ranked Pac-10 squads. The Huskies opened the season ranked in the Top-10 in both preseason polls. The AVCA coaches poll ranked the Dawgs eighth, the second-highest Pac-10 team behind No. 4 Stanford. Volleyball Magazine started the Huskies 10th. Seven Pac-10 teams were ranked in the AVCA preseason poll, easily the most of any conference, leading the four from the Big Ten.
NUMBER CRUNCHING
Washington, Stanford, and California have been rotating around at the top of the NCAA in attack percentage, with UW coming in No. 6 this week with a mark of .297. Junior Bianca Rowland ranks third in the conference and 10th nationally at .406. The Huskies are backing that up on defense, as they lead the Pac-10 in opponent hitting percentage, allowing just a .158 mark, having held five opponents under .100. Opponent hitting percentage has dictated wins and losses thus far for UW, as they are 18-0 when holding opponents under .200, but 0-5 when they allow the other team to hit above .250. Two of UW's defeats this year have come despite out-hitting their opponents. Jenna Hagglund ranks sixth nationally in assists per set at 11.89, and the Huskies are the only team in the Pac-10 with two outside hitters ranked in the top-10 in kills, as Kindra Carlson is eighth and Becky Perry comes in ninth. Due to a broken finger earlier this season, junior Lauren Barfield just recently made the 50% sets played mark needed to appear in Pac-10 stats, and now ranks No. 2 in the conference in blocks per set with 1.21. Looking only at conference matches, the junior also ranks second with 1.33 blocks per set.
RECORDS WATCH
Setter Jenna Hagglund passed a major milestone in the first set of the year, as she surpassed 4,000 career assists. Last weekend, she broke into the career top-10 list in Pac-10 history, and now sits 10th-place with 4,935 assists. She ranks second in UW history only to Courtney Thompson, the all-time Pac-10 leader. Hagglund is on track to reach 5,000 assists, something only nine Pac-10 setters have ever done. On the Bay Area road trip, seniors Becky Perry and Kindra Carlson both eclipsed the 1,000 career kills mark, with Perry hitting the plateau first on Friday against the Cardinal and Carlson getting her 1K kill the next night against the Bears. They are the 14th and 15th Huskies to surpass the mark. Perry now has 1,107 and Carlson has put down 1,084. Carlson and Perry have also moved up to third and fifth, respectively, on the UW career points list. Hagglund is also moving up the UW top-10 list in career sets played, having just become the seventh Husky to play 400 career sets.
REPORTING FOR DUTY
Four new faces have joined the Husky family this season, three freshmen and one transfer, and two more Dawgs have discarded the redshirts and moved from the bench to the starting lineup early on this season. Jenna Orlandini and Kylin Muñoz had to wait a long time for their collegiate debuts, each redshirting the 2009 season, but they put the extra time to good use, and both have earned starting roles thus far. Orlandini becomes just the third different Husky to start at libero since 2001, following All-Americans Candace Lee and Tamari Miyashiro. Orlandini has 20 or more digs in six matches this year, and ranks third in the Pac-10 with 4.51 digs/set. Muñoz had 17 kills against the Oregon schools in her first Pac-10 weekend, hitting .341 from the left side, and had a career-best 11 kills at UCLA. Entering into the same waiting game as Orlandini and Muñoz is junior Amanda Gil, who joined UW from Pac-10 rival UCLA and must redshirt the season due to transfer rules. Gil was second in the NCAA and led the Pac-10 in blocks last year, and will make UW better every day in practice. Of the three freshmen, Gabbi Parker of Eugene, Oregon saw first playing time, having now started three matches, averaging 1.56 kills/set and hitting .239. Setter Anna Cesari of Woodway, Wash. and middle blocker Stephanie Stoll of Bellevue, Wash. project more long-term but have bright futures.
NEXT UP
Washington takes its final road trip of the season, heading to the desert to face 20th-ranked Arizona and Arizona State. The Huskies will be in Tempe first to face the Sun Devils at 6 p.m. Pacific on Friday, Nov. 19, then drive to Tucson for a 6 p.m. start against the Wildcats on Saturday, Nov. 20.
