Pac-12 | Washington’s 2013 preseason schedule lacks marquee opponents

Illinois heads list of 8 nonconference matchups

The Washington Huskies will have a lean and not-so-mean nonconference volleyball schedule this fall:

				2012
DATE	LOCATION	OPPONENT	CONF.	RPI	W-L
Aug 30	Portland	Boise St.	Mtn West	141	17-15
Aug 31	Portland	Gonzaga	WCC	182	9-20
Aug 31	Portland	Portland St.	Big Sky	77	21-11
Sep 3	Seattle (UW)	Seattle U	WAC	227	9-19
Sep 13	Champaign, IL	Illinois	Big Ten	37	14-16
Sep 15	Chicago, IL	Loyola Chicago	Horizon	174	17-12
Sep 19	Seattle	Coppin St	Mid-Eastern	285	11-14
Sep 20	Seattle	Cal St Northridge	Big West	76	21-10

The biggest name of the bunch is Big Ten power Illinois. Two years ago, the Illini lost to UCLA in the National Championship Finals. Last year, the team earned a respectable 37 RPI, despite finishing with a losing record, and failing to qualify for the 64-team NCAA tournament.

In fact, not a single 2013 preseason opponent made the 2012 tournament, making this one of the weakest overall nonconference schedule in Jim McLaughlin’s 13 seasons as Washington head coach. The 2004 season comes close … and that was the first of three seasons in a row that the Huskies reached the Final Four.

As we pointed out on Tuesday (Preseason volleyball schedule coming into focus), fans of Pac-12 volleyball will see very few marquee matchups this preseason. Volleyblog Seattle has learned that at least one powerhouse team declined an invitation to play in Seattle, perhaps at Key Arena, site of this December’s 2013 Final Four. This breaks a fairly regular tradition of at least one big preseason tournament each year at the site of the NCAA Championships.

Several coaches tell us that big-time teams from the Midwest and East seem disinclined to wander into Pac-12 territory, unwilling to travel far to risk their RPI. So far, only one top-50 RPI team is scheduled to travel to a Pac-12 venue this fall, #25 Kansas State at California.

In Washington’s case, team’s may be eyeballing the Huskies’ recent nonconference record: 100 wins against just 2 losses (Texas in 2006 and Hawai’i in 2008, both on the road, both by 2 points in the fifth set). 97 of those 100 wins were 3-0 Husky sweeps.

WASHINGTON VOLLEYBALL

NONCONFERENCE MATCHES

UNDER COACH JIM McLAUGHLIN

2001 (7-2 / 11-16)
L	0-3	BYU (20-9)	Seattle
W	3-1	Purdue	Seattle
L	1-3	Texas (17-14)	Seattle
W	3-2	Denver	Denver
W	3-0	Illinois-Chicago	Colorado Springs
W	3-0	SE Louisiana	Colorado Springs
W	3-0	Air Force	Colorado Springs
W	3-0	Idaho	Seattle
W	3-1	Portland	Seattle
2002 (10-1 / 20-11)
W	3-0	Delaware	Oxford, OH
W	3-0	IPFW	Oxford, OH
W	3-0	Miami (OH)	Oxford, OH
W	3-0	San Diego State	Honolulu
W	3-0	San Francisco	Honolulu
L	1-3	Hawai’i (34-2)	Honolulu
W	3-0	North Texas	Denton, TX
W	3-0	Texas A& M	Denton, TX
W	3-0	Louisiana Tech	Denton, TX
W	3-0	SW Missouri State	Stockton
W	3-0	Pacific (19-13)	Stockton
2003 (10-0 / 23-9)
W	3-0	UM-Kansas City	Madison
W	3-0	New Hampshire	Madison
W	3-0	Wisconsin (22-11)	Madison
W	3-0	Mid. Tennessee St.	Fort Wayne, IN
W	3-1	Ohio	Fort Wayne, IN
W	3-0	IPFW	Fort Wayne, IN
W	3-0	Idaho State	Pocatello
W	3-0	Idaho	Moscow
W	3-0	Northern Arizona	Seattle
W	3-0	Utah Valley State	Seattle
2004 (8-0 / 28-3)
W	3-0	Butler	DeKalb, IL
W	3-0	Wisconsin-Milwaukee	DeKalb, IL
W	3-0	Northern Illinois	DeKalb, IL
W	3-0	Wichita State	Wichita
W	3-0	Arkansas	Wichita
W	3-0	Michigan State	Wichita
W	3-0	Montana	Boise
W	3-0	Boise State	Boise
2005 (9-0 / 32-1)
W	3-0	Gardner-Webb	Seattle
W	3-0	Montana State	Seattle
W	3-0	Davidson	Portland
W	3-0	Portland	Portland
W	3-0	North Dakota State	Fargo
W	3-0	Wisconsin-Green Bay	Fargo
W	3-0	Sam Houston State	Fargo
W	3-0	Hawai’i (27-7)	Honolulu
W	3-0	Hawai’i	Honolulu
2006 (10-1 / 29-5)
W	3-0	Ohio	Madison
L	2-3	Texas	Madison
W	3-0	Davidson	Davidson, NC
W	3-0	Morehead State	Davidson, NC
W	3-0	Liberty	Davidson, NC
W	3-0	Portland State	Seattle
W	3-0	UMBC	Seattle
W	3-0	North Dakota State	Seattle
W	3-0	Gonzaga	Seattle
W	3-0	Fresno State	Fresno
W	3-0	UC Davis	Fresno
2007 (11-0 / 27-4)
W	3-0	San Francisco	Seattle
W	3-0	Fresno State	Seattle
W	3-0	Cal State Northridge	Seattle
W	3-0	Gonzaga	Spokane
W	3-0	Boise State	Spokane
W	3-0	Morgan State	Spokane
W	3-1	Long Beach St	Long Beach
W	3-0	Florida State	Long Beach
W	3-0	North Florida	Jacksonville
W	3-0	Jacksonville	Jacksonville
W	3-0	New Orleans	Jacksonville
2008 (9-1 / 27-5)
W	3-0	Montana State	Bozeman
W	3-0	Portland	Bozeman
W	3-0	Gonzaga	Seattle
W	3-0	Boise State	Seattle
W	3-0	Portland State	Seattle
W	3-0	Pacific	Honolulu
W	3-0	Saint Mary’s	Honolulu
L	2-3	Hawai’i (31-4)	Honolulu
W	3-0	Seattle U	Seattle
W	3-0	San Diego	Seattle
2009 (10-0 / 24-6)
W	3-0	San Jose State	Seattle
W	3-0	Seattle U	@ Seattle U
W	3-0	San Diego State	Seattle
W	3-0	Boise State	Portland
W	3-0	Gonzaga	Portland
W	3-0	Portland State	Portland
W	3-0	Minnesota (28-9)	Tampa
W	3-0	Florida (25-6)	Tampa
W	3-0	UT-San Antonio	San Antonio
W	3-0	Mid. Tennessee St.	San Antonio
2010 (11-0 / 24-9)
W	3-0	Mercer	Seattle
W	3-0	Eastern Washington	Seattle
W	3-0	Portland State	Boise
W	3-0	Boise State	Boise
W	3-0	Gonzaga	Boise
W	3-0	Georgia	Athens, GA
W	3-0	Georgia Tech	Athens, GA
W	3-0	Florida Gulf Coast	Athens, GA
W	3-0	Pittsburgh	Pittsburgh
W	3-0	Eastern Illinois	Pittsburgh
W	3-0	Robert Morris	Pittsburgh
2011 (8-0 / 24-8)
W	3-0	Prairie View A&M	Long Beach
W	3-0	UMBC	Long Beach
W	3-1	Long Beach St (23-7)	Long Beach
W	3-0	Portland State	Spokane
W	3-0	Gonzaga	Spokane
W	3-0	Boise State	Spokane
W	3-0	Seattle U	Seattle
W	3-0	Fresno State	Seattle
2012 (9-0 / 25-7)
W	3-0	Boise State	Seattle
W	3-0	Gonzaga	Seattle
W	3-0	Portland State	Seattle
W	3-0	Purdue	Houston
W	3-0	LSU	Houston
W	3-0	Rice	Houston
W	3-0	Seattle U	Seattle
W	3-0	Long Beach State	Seattle
W	3-0	Portland	Portland