Bay Area has not been Husky-friendly

 Check out your team, Washington Huskies volleyball fans:

• 15-1 record
• Top Ten national ranking
• headed to the Bay Area to face old nemesis Cal & Stanford, both of whom suffered earlier losses to the LA schools

Sound good? Sure. Sound familiar? It should.

That was the situation exactly one year ago.

And strangely enough, it’s the exact same situation today.

Sure, last year at this point the Huskies were rated ninth in the nation; they are now number two. And while last year Cal beat UCLA but lost 3-2 to USC—while Stanford beat USC but lost 3-2 to UCLA—this season both NorCal schools were pounded by USC, 3-0 in each match, and each lost to UCLA. Washington was also swept by USC earlier this year, but the Huskies shut out the Bruins.

So UW heads for the Cities by the Bay, and—as always—it’s a pretty big deal.  How big? In the ten seasons since 2002, including this one:

• UW has arrived in the Bay Area either undefeated (5 times) or with just one loss (2 times)
• Only once have the Huskies escaped unscathed: in 2005, the year they won the national championship.
• Washington has been swept three times in Northern California, including last season.
• Its overall record the past decade is 5-4 in Berkeley and 2-7 in Palo Alto, a disappointing .389 winning percentage. They've lost five of their last six Bay Area matches.

	record on arrival	@ Cal	@ Stanford
2002	11-5	W (3-2)	L (0-3)
2003	11-0	L (1-3)	L (0-3)
2004	22-0	W (3-1)	L (2-3)
2005	12-0	W (3-2)	W (3-1)
2006	24-3	W (3-1)	L (0-3)
2007	16-0	L (2-3)	W (3-2)
2008	16-3	L (0-3)	L (0-3)
2009	14-0	W (3-0)	L (2-3)
2010	15-1	L (0-3)	L (1-3)
2011	15-1
	156-13	5-4	2-7

Two of the most heart-wrenching losses during the Jim McLaughlin era have come on the Stanford campus. In 2004, UW was 22-0, ranked #1 in the nation. The Huskies won the first two sets, and barely lost the next two. In the fifth set, UW led 10-4 before the wheels fell off. Stanford tied the score at 15, then 16, then 17, then 18, before winning the set and match, 20-18. Washington lost only two more matches that season, at home to USC (in a five-set squeaker), and in the Final Four semifinals, once again to Stanford.

In 2009, the Huskies were 15-0 and ranked #3 after knocking off Cal, and had won 26 of their previous 27 matches dating to the previous season. UW won the first and third sets, barely lost the fourth, and dropped a tough fifth set in Palo Alto, 12-15. The Huskies got revenge in Seattle with a 3-0 sweep of the Cardinal, but dropped four of their final eight matches for a disappointing end to a promising season.

So this looms as the biggest test of the season so far for Washington. They’ve played all but two of their Pac-12 matches at home this season; their stake to a claim of the conference title depends on winning as often as possible in LA, Westwood, Palo Alto, Berkeley and Eugene. Last season, they were 0-5 in those venues.

We’ll soon know the midseason measure of this team.