How did California beat Washington?

It was late in the final set. Washington and California were tied, with each team exchanging side-outs. Sometimes points were earned by strong attacks; others were given up on errors.

Suddenly, almost quietly, Cal strung together two in a row, and the match ended.

While that was the script last night in Seattle, it was also the exact same scenario last month in Berkeley. And last season in Seattle. And two seasons ago in Seattle.

The Golden Bears have now defeated the Huskies six times in a row, spanning 2-1/2 seasons. And almost every time, there’s just a whisker of difference, always in Cal’s favor.

“We seem to match up really well,” said Cal Coach Rich Feller after his team escaped with another 3-1 victory (25-21, 25-23, 22-25, 25-23). “Right now, our team obviously has some confidence in playing the Huskies.”

“I thought Cal played well,” counted Washington Coach Jim McLaughlin, as he lamented his team’s inability to close out tight sets against the Bears. “It’s a maturity thing. It gets real tough in the later stages of the set. It takes a lot of fortitude, you gotta have composure. It’s hard. We’re learning how to deliver at the end of sets. But we’re not good enough yet.”

Washington's Kelly Holford (3), Summer Ross (99) and Gabbi Parker (11) celebrate a kill by Bianca Rowland (15)
[Volleyblog Seattle photo by Leslie Hamann]

It was Senior Night at Hec Ed Pavilion, and both coaches lauded the career—and recent resurgence—of Washington senior Bianca Rowland. Saturday night, Rowland had 12 kills and 2 errors on 23 attacks (.435) Over the past six matches (Arizona State, Arizona, UCLA, USC, Stanford & Cal), Rowland has a combined 60 kills and just 5 errors on 122 attacks (.451). Considering the competition (the past four opponents are all ranked in the top five nationally), it would be fair to say no one in Division 1 is playing better right now than Rowland.

“She’s good all the time now,” said McLaughlin. “She’s just that good. We gotta go to her a little more, to be honest with you.”

“What a great player,” said Feller. “I won’t miss her as a competitor. I will miss seeing her display her skills. She’s fabulous.”

But the Golden Bears have plenty of good players on their side, which helps answer the question: How did California beat Washington?

WASHINGTON COULD NOT STOP CALIFORNIA’S SLIDE ATTACK

California's Elly Barrett (10) sets a slide to Kat Brown (11)
[Volleyblog Seattle photo by Leslie Hamann]

A slide play is when a hitter—most often, but not always, the middle—runs toward the pin (antenna) and takes a fairly flat set to hit a sharply-angled attack, often off the block.

“They’re in love with the slide. They run it to death,” said McLaughlin. “They got away from us on the slide, for sure.”

Cal’s Shannon Hawari had 12 kills (.556), mostly off the slide. Correy Johnson, Cal’s right side hitter, added 11 kills (.409), most from way outside the pins.

“Correy’s pretty magical sometimes,” Feller said. ”She’s just so rangey, and she’s got all the shots. She’s got a pretty fast arm that I think people underestimate.”

Although other teams have had success against the Huskies with a slide, McLaughlin is confident his system is designed to handle it.

“You gotta do it by committee; you gotta have people in the right spot blocking,” he said, “and then you gotta have people in the right spots defensively. Middles have to take big steps. And we were drifting, and we can’t drift.”

WASHINGTON COMMITTED TOO MANY HITTING ERRORS

On the night, Washington hit an anemic .135, thanks largely to committing 29 attack errors.

“We were just not getting a good beat,” said McLaughlin. “We were early on our transition hits. We’re not on a first step going to the ball, and we’re running underneath the ball and we’re launching it.”

Running under the ball was a particular problem at crucial times for both Krista Vansant and Kylin Muñoz. Vansant had 10 hitting errors to go with her 13 kills (.061); Muñoz added another 6 errors with her 11 kills (.126) During big rallies at the ends of sets one and four, Muñoz and Cal’s Tarah Murrey were their respective teams’ go-to hitters; Murrey—an All-American senior—far outplayed Muñoz, who sent the match’s final attack sailing out of bounds when she aimed too high for the Cal blockers’ hands.

“Tarah Murrey was good when she had to be,” said McLaughlin.

Besides Rowland, the other bright spot for the Huskies’ attack was Summer Ross. Last month in Berkeley, Ross had 14 kills on just one error; Saturday she added six kills on just one error. McLaughlin was impressed.

“I challenged her a little bit after last night (a win against Stanford) and said, ‘Look, you can pass, you can block, you can serve. But you can hit, too.’ And she’s got a good arm. She did a better job tonight. She’s just gotta go after it a little more.”

THE TWO-SETTER OFFENSE WORKS … EXCEPT WHEN IT DOESN’T

After a rough start, McLaughlin’s mid-season installation of a 6/2 (two-setter) offense seems to be working, especially lighting offensive fires under Rowland and sophomore outside hitter Gabbi Parker.

Kelly Holford digs as Krista Vansant (16)
looks on
[Volleyblog Seattle photo by Leslie Hamann]

But teams are allowed only 12 substitutions per set, and a 6/2 burns through substitutions quickly. That, in the end, may have cost the Huskies the fourth set. Unhappy with the play of Parker, libero Jenna Orlandini, middle blocker Lauren Barfield (“they were not meeting their standards”), McLaughlin used extra substitutions to bring in Kaleigh Nelson, Kelly Holford and Kelcey Dunaway. Toward the end of the set, Washington had no more substitutions, McLaughlin was forced to use just two hitters in the front row.

“We ran out of subs in the fourth set,” said McLaughlin. “I think if we don’t run out of subs, we win that set.”

That said, #11 Washington has finally completed a killer four-match march against the nation’s elite: #1 UCLA, #4 USC, #3 Stanford and #5 Cal. They were rarely out of any set, and rallied dramatically for a victory over Stanford. With the team’s final four conference matches against teams toward the bottom of the standings—Utah, Colorado and Washington State (twice)—McLaughlin hopes the lessons learned from playing great teams will allow his team to make another deep run in the tournament.

“I liked our fight. We have some fight in us. Our backs are against the ball and we respond.”