Pac 12 | Washington adds Canadian National Team to preseason volleyball schedule

Two matches scheduled, one each at Key Arena and Alaska Airlines Arena

• Sep 6| 7PM | Team Canada vs. Washington | Key Arena
• Sep 7| TBA | Team Canada vs. Washington |Alaska Airlines Arena

The Washington Huskies’ preseason volleyball schedule just got a big boost with the addition of two matches against the Canadian National Team.

Canada's Lucy Charuk (25) attacks against Peru in the Pan Am Cup
-photo courtesy Volleyball Canada

Canada will face Washington twice, at Key Arena on September 6 and at Alaska Airlines Arena September 7.

The matches will be exhibitions, and therefore will not count toward Washington’s RPI for postseason tournament seeding. The Huskies had previously scheduled just 8 preseason matches this season; none of those opponents qualified for the 2012 NCAA Tournament.

The Key Arena contest will give the Seattle Sports Commission a chance to tweak any volleyball issues in advance of hosting the 2013 NCAA Final Four this December.

Canada did not qualify for the London Olympics. This June, it went 1-2 in the Pan Am Cup in Peru (won by USA). Last month, the Canadians ended up 3-3 in the FISU Games in Russia, finishing 6^th. After playing the Huskies, Canada will travel to the September 14-22 NORCECA Championships in Omaha, hosted by USA.

Like most national teams, Canada carries 24-30 athletes on its roster, most of them college graduates and many playing professionally overseas. Canadian head coach Arnd Ludwig will choose 12 players for the Washington matches, which may include a few names familiar to NCAA volleyball fans. UCLA’s Tabi Love (Dauphin, Manitoba) plays for Canada as does four-time Nebraska All-American Sara Pavan (Kitchener, Ontario). The Canadian captain is Brittany Page (Vernon, BC), who played for Eastern Washington from 2002-05. There are several British Columbia athletes on Team Canada, including powerful Lucy Charuk (Tswwassen, BC) who played at Houston, and Dana Cranston (Fort St. John, BC) who played for Colorado State.

2013 WASHINGTON VOLLEYBALL SCHEDULE

		PACIFIC TIME		2012 RPI	2012 W-L
Fri	Aug 30	TBA	Boise St	141	17-15	Portland
Sat	Aug 31	TBA	Gonzaga	182	9-20	Portland
Sat	Aug 31	TBA	Portland St	77	21-11	Portland
Tue	Sep 3	7PM	Seattle U	227	9-19	Seattle (UW)
Fri	Sep 6	7PM	Team Canada			Key Arena
Sat	Sep 7	TBA	Team Canada			Seattle (UW)
Fri	Sep 13	7PM	Illinois	37	14-16	Champaign, IL
Sun	Sep15	3PM	Loyola Chicago	174	17-12	Chicago
Thu	Sep 19	7PM	Coppin St	285	11-14	Seattle
Fri	Sep 20	7PM	Cal St Northridge	76	21-10	Seattle
Wed	Sep 25	7:30PM	@ WSU	129	13-19	Pullman
Fri	Sep 27	8PM	@ Oregon	4	30-5	Eugene
Fri	Oct 4	6PM	@ Colorado	111	14-18	Boulder
Sat	Oct 5	TBA	@ Utah	82	14-19	Salt Lake City
Fri	Oct 11	8PM	Arizona	53	16-15	Seattle
Sun	Oct 13	3PM	ASU	42	20-14	Seattle
Wed	Oct 16	7:30PM	California	40	15-16	Seattle
Sun	Oct 20	4:30PM	Stanford	1	30-4	Seattle
Fri	Oct 25	8PM	@ UCLA	8	23-8	Los Angeles
Sun	Oct 27	5PM	@ USC	11	30-6	Los Angeles
Fri	Nov 1	7PM	Utah			Seattle
Sun	Nov 3	3PM	Colorado			Seattle
Fri	Nov 8	TBA	@ ASU			Tempe
Sun	Nov 10	11AM	@ Arizona			Tucson
Wed	Nov 13	TBA	UCLA			Seattle
Fri	Nov 15	TBA	USC			Seattle
Wed	Nov 20	TBA	@ Stanford			Palo Alto
Fri	Nov 22	TBA	@ California			Berkeley
Wed	Nov 27	TBA	OSU	63	14-18	Seattle
Fri	Nov 29	8PM	WSU			Seattle
Thu- Sat		TBA	NCAA 1st/2nd Round			top 16 seeds host
Fri- Sat		TBA	NCAA Regionals			Los Angeles Lincoln, NE Lexington, KY Champaign, IL
Thu- Sat	Dec 19/21	TBA	NCAA Championships			Seattle Key Arena