Pac-12 | What we learned from Washington volleyball’s win against WSU

Passing, setting are key as Huskies keep Cougars guessing

#2 Washington def. Washington State 3-0 (25-17, 25-17, 25-17)

• next: #2 Washington @ #21 Oregon | September 26 | 8PM | Pac-12 Network

Pac-12 | How Washington matches up with Washington State

Tuesday, September 18 | 7pm: Washington State @ #5 Washington

TV: Pac-12 Network (Kelli Tennant and Krista Blunk)

Although Washington/Washington State qualifies as a rivalry, the Huskies have won 18 of the past 20 meetings, including the last 10 in Seattle. That said, the Cougars look dangerous.

WSU’s current nine-match win streak includes mostly middle-tier teams, but Wazzu has shown it can take care of business. In 14 of the 41 sets it’s played, the Cougars have held opponents under 15 points; five times they’ve kept it to 10 or less. At the D1 level, that’s enough to make you sit up straight and pay attention.

Washington State's Jaicee Harris (R)
-Washington State Sports Information

Both Washington and WSU excel at two important skills: serving and blocking. It makes sense, since great serves usually yield poor passes which, in turn, limit setters’ options and make it easier for blockers to commit. We predict that the serve/serve receive battle will determine the outcome of the match.

As a team, Washington is hitting .326, holding opponents to .148.

Washington State is hitting .271, holding opponents to a mere .092.

Ask Washington: Never say die is more than a cliche

It was the third set in Pullman. Washington State—a huge underdog—won the first two sets, and had two match points.

• Trailing 22-24, with WSU’s Meagan Ganzer serving, Washington’s Bianca Rowland and Kylin Muñoz combined to block WSU’s Jaicee Harris
• Trailing 23-24, with Jenna Orlandini serving, Washington’s Krista Vansant got a kill, one of 25 on the night. WSU called a time out.
• Tied 24-24, Vansant got another kill, once again on a Jenni Nogueras set.
• Leading 25-24, Washington scored its fourth consecutive point—and won the set—on Ganzer’s hitting error.

Washington's Bianca Rowland
[Volleyblog Seattle photo by Leslie Hamann]

Volleyball is one of the few sports where a team can come back literally from the brink to win. When a basketball team is down by 10 with one second remaining, it’s over. Ditto for football, hockey, lacrosse, soccer, etc.

But in volleyball—as in tennis (and, to a certain extent, baseball and softball)—it’s truly never over until it’s over.

Washington hung on to win set four, then utterly steamrolled the Cougars to win set five.

Over her past ten matches, Rowland a senior middle blocker, is hitting a torrid.457 (97 kills/13 errors/184 attempts). Her coach, Jim McLaughlin, says she ought to get plenty of votes as a first-team All-American. Considering she’s also one of the nation’s leading blockers, that’s not such an unreasonable observation.

Rowland’s teammates put up some pretty impressive offensive numbers in two matches this week against their rivals: