College | After Showdown in Seattle, Washington volleyball climbs in polls

Huskies now ranked in the top 4; Vansant and Scambray named Pac-12 Players of the Week

• Washington State @ #4 Washington | Wed, Sept 24 | 7:30PM
• #4 Washington @ California | Fri, Sept 26 | 8PM

Pac-12 | Pac-12 Power Rankings: Week Four

Pac-12 goes 30-1 in final week of nonconference play. Now the real games begin.

There will be losses …

Pac-12 schools simply roared through the preseason, winning 10 of every 12 matches played (.833).

Now that conference contests are upon us, the victory rate will drop to 6 of every 12, and contenders will slowly separate from pretenders. No matter what, however, the conference RPI should get a boost come tournament time.

The first and last week of conference play is rivalry week, and that has probably never meant so much. The biggest matches:

• #1 UCLA @ #2 USC: The top-two teams in the national polls; will Galen Center attract more Trojan fans than Bruin fans?
• Washington State @ #5 Washington: Huskies haven’t dropped a set, and the Cougs keep holding opponents to single digits. Both teams serve and block with the best.
• Oregon State @ #8 Oregon: ESPN ranks Oregon third in the nation; Oregon State beat Penn State
• California @ #6 Stanford : In any other season, this might have been the match of the week. Cal has a lot of returning talent; someone is going to underestimate them.

Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week Arica Nassar
-Oregon State Sports Inofrmation

 Here’s how we count 'em down … 

Vansant streak ends

Krista Vansant

For the first time in 2011, Krista Vansant is not the Pac-12 Freshman of the Week.

The University of Washington outside hitter won the honor the first two weeks of the season. The season’s third freshman honoree is Oregon State middle blocker Arica Nassar.

Nassar had a monster week, leading the Beavers to wins against Seattle U, SMU, Utah State and Long Beach State. Two of the victories—SMU and Long Beach State—were five-set barnburners, giving Nassar plenty of chances to display her hitting and blocking talents.

For the week, Nassar hit .402, with a .356 kills per set average.

Vansant didn’t have a bad week herself. In sweeps of Seattle U and Fresno State, she hit .409 and had a 3.66 kps average.

Yes, Vansant’s numbers are slightly better than Nassar’s. But no, Vansant can’t get the award every week. And yes, Nassar deserves it.

The Pac-12 press release.

2011 Pac-12 Women's Volleyball Player of the Week
Date	Offensive	Defensive	Freshman
Aug. 29	Alaina Bergsma, ORE	Bianca Rowland, WASH	Krista Vansant, WASH
Sept. 5	Rachael Kidder, UCLA	Karissa Cook, STAN	Krista Vansant, WASH
Sept. 12	Rachel Williams, STAN	Carly Wopat, STAN	Arica Nassar, OSU