College | Huskies keep amazing nonconference streak alive with win in Hawai’i

UW has now won 77 nonconference matches in a row; Jones and Bajema honored as UW climbs in the polls

• #6 Washington def. #14 Hawai’i 3-2 (25-23, 17-25, 28-26, 23-25, 15-13)
• Sept 15 | 5PM | #5 Washington vs. Maryland @ USC
• Sept 16 | 5PM | #5 Washington vs. Oklahoma @ USC

Washington's Tia Scambray jousts at the net during the Huskies' 3-2 win over Hawai'i in Honolulu
-photo by Hawai'i Athletic Department

There are plenty of reasons Washington has a hard time scheduling quality nonconference opponents. Last night offered another.

Despite playing on their home court in front of 6,856 fans, the Hawai’i Rainbow Wahine could not put away their Northwest nemesis, as Washington eked out the narrowest of victories, 3-2 (25-23, 17-25, 28-26, 23-25, 15-13). Watching the match on Hawai’i’s live stream, here’s what we saw:

• The turning point came at the end of the third set, with the teams tied in sets at 1-1, and Hawai’i at the service line with a 24-20 lead. The Huskies won the point on a Crissy Jones kill, launching an 8-2 run that ended in a 28-26 UW set victory. The biggest star of the streak was outside hitter Tia Scambray, who landed three great serves—including deadly missiles down the line—to bring tie the score at 24. In all, Washington fought off 6 set points to win the third.

• Jones was an enigma. The junior outside hitter recorded 22 kills with 4 errors on 60 swings (.300), earning tournament MVP and Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week honors. She plays all six rotations, and may be one of the Huskies’ best back row attackers in several seasons. And yet, an eye-opening number of Jones’ front row attempts were tips. On the one hand, Hawai’i was not great at covering short attacks (see Nikki Taylor, below). On the other hand, Jones seemed to pass up far too many attempts to pound the ball, something an elite opposite simply has to do, even when sets aren't perfect.

• Scambray and fellow junior Courtney Schwan will likely continue to be the most under-publicized outside hitter tandem in the nation. They are both outstanding passers, a growing Washington outside hitter tradition. Scambray attacks with abandon, even after making a hitting error. Schwan seems to be overcoming last season’s tendency to tip when under pressure, and smartly uses the block. Against Hawai’i, Schwan had 19 kills and just 2 errors (.415) and Scambray added 16 kills with 8 errors (.186).

• For the first time in many seasons, Washington is running a 5-1 (1 setter) offense, and junior setter Bailey Tanner has been outstanding. Against Hawai’i, she ran a quick tempo offense that, frankly, asked a little more of her pin hitters than they were able to deliver. That could turn out great, however, as Scambray, Schwan and Jones have a chance to get into better position in transition, knowing that smart, quick sets are on the way, often creating attacks against single blocks. Tanner, like Wisconsin All-American Lauren Carlini, is comfortable across the front line, setting strong blocks and attacking when needed.

• Kudos to two freshmen: middle Kara Bajema and libero Shayne McPherson. Hawai’i servers drilled McPherson in the second set, eventually forcing coach Keegan Cook to employ a two-person serve receive (Scambray and Schwan) in certain rotations. But McPherson hung tough, and had just one awful pass the rest of the way. Bajema—the Pac-12 Freshman of the Week—was terrific throughout, aggressively slamming over-passes, confidently pressing her hands over the net when blocking and playing scramble defense like a back row player. Washington will benefit as Bajema gets more comfortable on quicks, especially as Cook burns multiple substitutions for his MB2 platoon, Destiny Julye (attacking) and Avie Niece (blocking.)

• Hawai’i outside hitter Nikki Taylor had a career-high 29 kills, but her 70 attempts took a toll. By the fifth set, she appeared to be bothered by pain in both her elbow and knee. During the Huskies’ final push, Taylor was unable to pick up tips or chase shanked balls, and was often hidden on serve receive. In a razor-thin match, Washington’s comparatively balanced attack proved the difference.

The win in Honolulu extends some pretty amazing Washington streaks.

• UW has now won 77 nonconference regular season matches in a row.
• The Huskies’ last nonconference loss was 8 years ago, on September 13, 2008, in Honolulu, when Hawai’i prevailed 3-2 (20-25, 27-29, 26-24, 25-14, 16-14).
• Washington also lost to Hawai’i in Honolulu on September 7, 2002, by a 3-1 score (26-30, 30-22, 30-27, 30-28), a match where the Wahine’s Kim Willoughby recorded 38 kills.
• Between 2002 and 2008, UW had just one other nonconference loss, to Texas on August 26, 2006 in Madison, WI, by a score of 3-2 (30-24, 23-30, 30-27, 28-30, 15-13).
• Overall, the Huskies are a jaw-dropping 148-3 in nonconference regular-season matches since the first weekend of 2001.

And so … if you were an opposing coach of a top-tier team, how eager might you be to schedule a match in the far reaches of the Northwest against a team that almost never loses? Even in a year with no true seniors, playing on the road in front of a huge audience, the Washington Huskies find a way to win nonconference matches.

HUSKIES RISE IN THE POLLS

Washington is now #5 in the AVCA Coaches Poll and #4 in the FloVolleyball Poll. In both polls, Nebraska, Texas and Minnesota are #1, #2 & #3. Kansas is #4 in AVCA and #7 in FloVolleyball.

With UCLA’s loss to San Diego and Wisconsin’s loss to North Carolina, Washington (8-0) is one of only five remaining undefeated teams in the AVCA Top 25. #1 Nebraska is 6-0, #4 Kansas is 9-0, #9 BYU is 9-0 and #17 Santa Clara is 9-0.

COUGARS OFF TO FAST START

Washington State is 8-1 in nonconference play. It’s only loss was to Purdue, a 7-1 team that beat Stanford this weekend. The Cougars beat UC Irvine, a team that swept USC 3-0.

The Cougars are hitting .307, seventh best among all Division 1 schools (Washington is #24 at .281). WSU is holding opponents to .116, #5 in the nation (UW is #52 at .162). Washington State ranks #7 in blocks per set, with 3.23 (the Huskies are #45 with 2.55.)

L.A. GROUNDHOG DAY

Washington starts Pac-12 play in 9 days, when it hosts WSU. But before and immediately after, UW makes two trips to USC’s Galen Center.

This Thursday and Friday, the Huskies play Maryland and Oklahoma, the third year of a four-year deal where the Terrapins and Sooners meet the Huskies and Trojans on rotating home courts.

USC’s Mick Haley is not a fan of the series—Wisconsin backed out after the first year of the series when the Badgers lost to both Southern Cal and Washington in Seattle. Haley hints that SC and UW are working on a new deal with higher-ranked opponents starting in 2018.

The strangeness of this week’s contests are that both Haley and Keegan Cook will be able to scout each other’s team just days before UW again travels to Galen to meet USC on September 23. Although Washington and Southern Cal tied for the 2015 Pac-12 title (both were 18-2), the conference’s ridiculous unbalanced schedule means that this will be the only UW/USC meeting of the season. Likewise, Washington will only see UCLA once, at home the night before Thanksgiving.

Sorry, Pac-12, that’s just wrong.

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College | In battle of unbeatens, Washington volleyball loses round one to USC

Destiny Julye has another big night, but it's not enough to overcome Samantha Bricio's 27 kills 

#2 USC def. #5 Washington 3-1 (25-16, 22-25, 25-21, 33-31) 

• Wed, Oct 7 | 7:30PM | #14 Arizona @ #5 Washington 
• Fri, Oct 9 | 7:00PM | #6 Arizona St @ #5 Washington 

Washington's Destiny Julye gets one of her 15 kills against USC's block
-Volleyblog Seattle photo by Leslie Hamann

LOS ANGELES—In Mick Haley's opinion, Keegan Cook was gutsy. 

USC's legendary head coach was impressed when Washington's first-year coach scrambled his first set lineup at Galen Center Sunday afternoon. With his leading hitter, Courtney Schwan, sidelined after her ankle was injured during Friday's 3-0 victory at UCLA, Cook tried something new. He moved Crissy Jones from opposite to outside, and had Bailey Tanner hit opposite in the front row and set in the back row. "He (Cook) did something that probably most coaches wouldn't do," said Haley, admiringly.  

But the decision was a disaster. Jones struggled mightly in that first set—1 kill and 2 errors on 14 swings—as USC blew past UW 25-16. And so, as the second set began, Cook returned Jones to her usual opposite position, and inserted freshman Destiny Julye on the outside.  

Even more than she did Friday when she replaced the injured Schwan, Julye made an immediate impact. She recorded 6 kills and an big stuff block to lead Washington to a 25-22 second set win. "Keegan was very smart to go back to something more familiar to his players so they could play freely," said Haley.  

"I just told her to hit high and hit hard," said Cook. "She was really swinging." 

Washington's Cassie Strickland celebrates a point against USC
-Volleyblog Seattle photo by Leslie Hamann

Facing undefeated USC--now the nation's number one team--on the Trojans' home court, Washington had much to be pleased about. Lianna Sybeldon had another strong match, tallying 10 kills, most with authority. Cassie Strickland was again alert and physical on defense, leading by example with 15 digs while exhorting her teammates to cover blocks with amazing success. Tanner was an effective hitter and an even better setter. 

But the USC match offered evidence of where Washington has room to improve. Serving and passing—both Huskies trademarks—were off their usual standards. In part, the Huskies tried to serve Samantha Bricio as much as possible, with mixed results. Although Bricio seemed to tire in the first set, she caught her second wind after the break, something Haley credits to Bricio's offseason weight training.

USC's Samantha Bricio had 27 kills and 3 service aces against Washington
-Volleyblog Seattle photo by Leslie Hamann

Sybeldon and Melanie Wade, UW's outstanding middles, needed to be more involved in the offense as both Jones and Tia Scambray had sub-par performances. Cook said that Wade, in particular, should have gotten more than 14 sets. 

Last season's 2014 team had few weaknesses, but in pressure situations, last year's hitters had a tendency to send across too-easy tips and roll shots when sets weren't perfect. Against USC Sunday, that same problem stepped in, as the Huskies seemed reluctant to try to tool blocks or hit high hands down the stretch. 

Except for Julye. The 5-11 freshman continued to blast away in the third and fourth set, eventually earning a team-high 15 kills. Even during one bad stretch in the fourth, she kept hitting hard, eventually landing more winners. Many were line shots off the block. "Julye really went off," Haley marveled. "She's really got to be tickled with her performance." 

Washington's Lianna Sybeldon tips over the USC block attempt
-Volleyblog Seattle photo by Leslie Hamann 

The fourth set brought full-throated roars from a USC crowd mixed with plenty of purple. A Julye kill tied it at 22; another Julye kill knotted it at 23. A barely-in Jones cross-court made it 26-26; and a Wade line-scraping slide brought it to 27-all. Trailing 29-30, Sybeldon sealed two consecutive blocks, first on Bricio and then on Alicia Ogoms. 

But the final three points went USC's way, on Bricio's 27th kill followed by two consecutive UW hitting errors. It handed Cook his first-ever loss as a head coach, and forces him to figure a way to extract lessons from defeat. Great teams, he said after the match, learn from adversity. Washington has plenty of potential adversity ahead, starting with undefeated Arizona State Friday night in Alaska Airlines Arena. 

And then there's USC. The Trojans will be in Seattle at the end of the month.   

NOTES 

• Courtney Schwan remained on crutches. She says her left ankle would be fully evaluated on her return to Seattle. 
• Only three teams remain undefeated in Division 1: USC, Arizona State and Kansas. Nebraska knocked off #1 Penn State in five sets Friday. On Sunday, Nebraska lost in five to Ohio State. 
• The US Women's National Team won the NORCECA tournament in Mexico, and will play for the North American slot at the Rio Olympics at a separate NORCECA tournament in January. 

College | Washington Volleyball looks strong, even if schedule is not

Huskies begin Pac-10 play knowing they can dominate lower-rated opponents

• Tonight | 7PM | Washington @ Washington State
• Sunday | 6PM | Colorado @ Washington

[Report corrected 5:03PM 9.24.15]

Washington opens the Pac-12 season  tonight in Pullman
-Volleyblog Seattle photo by Leslie Hamann

On paper, the Washington Huskies look pretty powerful. Under first-year coach Keegan Cook, UW went 10-0 during nonconference play, dropping just one set (at Oklahoma) in four weeks of competition. Their .381 hitting percentage is the best—by far—in the nation (Penn State is second at .336.) They rank 7^th in kills per set (14.65), 8^th in assists per set (13.61), and 8^th in blocks per set (3.00).

And, oh yeah, they've held their opponents to a .099 hitting percentage, third-best in the nation.

Unfortunately, none of those wins have come against a ranked team. The collective record of Washington's 9 opponents (they played Cal State Northridge twice) is 54-54. The Huskies are ranked #6 by AVCA coaches, but real tests are still to come.

Tonight, the Huskies are in Pullman to face WSU. The Cougars lost their nonconference opener to Radford, but have not dropped a set since. Like Washington, however, none of Wazzu’s opponents have cracked the rankings, and none of WSU’s matches were against teams from any of the five power conferences (Pac-12, Big Ten, Big 12, ACC and SEC.) [9.24.15 | 5:03PM | CORRECTION: Texas Tech, whom Washington State defeated 3-0 (25-22, 25-14, 25-18) on September 18 in Lubbock, is a member of the Big 12.]

Washington State’s big weapon is Kyra Holt, who ranks 13^th in the nation with 4.55 kills per set. Holt played poorly in WSU’s Seattle match last season, and did not play in the Pullman rematch. That latter contest will be on the mind of UW senior setter Katy Beals, whose season ended with an injury on ancient Bohler Gym’s floor.

On Sunday, the Huskies open their home conference season at 6PM, roughly 90 minutes after the conclusion of the Seahawks’ 2015 home regular-season debut. Under normal circumstances, the match would draw a decent crowd because the opponent is Colorado, the program that’s handed UW one-third of all its losses the past two seasons (2 of 6.) Both defeats were in Boulder, a plane ride the Huskies will not be taking this season, since this is the year they play Colorado and Utah only once each (no Utes in Alaska Airlines Arena in 2015.)

To Colorado coach Liz Kritza’s credit, she scheduled some tough nonconference opponents this year, getting a big 3-2 at home against #17 Florida State, and picking up 0-3 losses to #1 Penn State and #9 Illinois. Last night, however, CU laid a big egg in Salt Lake City, losing its Pac-12 opener to a middling Utah team, 3-1. It was an ugly match: Colorado’s .169 hitting average was actually better than Utah’s .146—both teams committed 27 errors, and the Buffs outblocked the Utes 15-11. Colorado, however, has two potent weapons in Gabby Simpson and Alexis Austin, even if Simpson has struggled of late (86 hitting errors on 368 swings, .171)

UW lost just two players from last season’s 31-3 team, though they were big ones: Krista Vansant and Kaleigh Nelson. The star of this year’s 10-0 has been 6-1 sophomore outside hitter Courtney Schwan. A local player from Auburn, WA (Bellarmine Prep), Schwan’s .433 hitting percentage is 16^th in the nation—and the best of any outside hitter in the country. The top 15 are all middle blockers, including two Huskies: #2 Lianna Sybeldon (.508) and #10 Melanie Wade (.455).

Wade appears trimmer, quicker and more powerful this season, and Sybeldon plays with her typical abandon. Libero Cassie Strickland seems to fully embrace the leadership mantel, and setter Bailey Tanner plays with a noticeably greater confidence. Most strikingly, this UW team looks big and fit—hours spent in the weightroom with strength and conditioning coach Henry Ruggiero appear to have paid dividends.

NOTES

• #3 USC is the Pac-12 cream of the crop so far this season. Last night, Mick Haley’s team beat #13 UCLA 3-0 in Westwood, to go 13-0 on the season. The biggest of the Trojans’ nonconference wins was a 3-0 sweep of 2014 National runner-up #10 BYU. Haley has done it without former star Ebony Nwanebu, who transferred to #2 Texas in the offseason (only to injure her ankle after leading Texas to a big win over #4 Nebraska.) Trojan senior Samantha Bricio has been a beast, leading the nation in points per set (combined total of kills, blocks and aces.)
• #8 Stanford will be a great test for USC when the two teams meet for the only time this season, Sunday in Palo Alto. The Cardinal had a lost weekend earlier this month—John Dunning’s first-ever back-to-back 0-3 losses in his 15 seasons at Stanford, to #1 Penn State and unranked North Carolina. Star middle Inky Ajanaku will miss the entire season after injuring her knee while competing with the US National Team this summer. All-American outside hitter Jordan Burgess has been hobbled with shoulder problems, often reduced to a back row role. Even so, the Cardinal opened conference play with a 3-1 win in Berkeley, led by freshman Hayley Hodson with 18 kills.
• #13 UCLA attracted an impressive crowd of 4441 for last night’s USC match. But at Cal, the attendance was only 1,065 for rival Stanford, and Utah drew a mere 617 for its upset of Colorado. Most Pac-12 schools have yet to start classes, but even so, attendance continues to be a problem in the Pac-12 Network era. It’s not so much that folks are staying home to watch the matches on TV (the network’s ratings are still modest). Instead, fans remain unhappy about the wildly-fluctuating schedule (Sunday at 6PM, Wednesday at 7:30PM, Thursday at 8PM, etc.) that the broadcast schedule dictates. Even worse, the network increasingly covers Washington matches without sending announcers to Seattle—they sit in a studio in the Bay Area and talk as they watch the video feed. The Huskies lead the conference in attendance year in and year out, but the game suffers badly when the attendance in the stands keeps shrinking throughout the league.

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• next: #3 Washington @ #6 Stanford | November 20 | 7:30PM | Pac 12 Networks

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NCAA | They’re baaack! The season’s first volleyball RPIs

Washington is sixth; Pac-12 shows strength

Last November, Washington coach Jim McLaughlin blasted the RPI as “a joke.” USC coach Mick Haley declared, jokingly, that the alleged misuse of the RPI was grounds to “Occupy NCAA.”

But once again, the Ratings Percentage Index is back. If you don’t know the RPI, consider a quick visit to Volleyblog Seattle’s RPI Primer. We’ll pause a moment for you to take a look.

Washington's Jenni Nogueras (9) sets the right side
-Volleyblog Seattle photo by Leslie Hamann

Welcome back! As you now know, the RPI is supposed to help the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee decide which 16 teams earn coveted home court for the first two rounds of the playoffs. numbers are calculated by crunching the win-loss records of opponents, opponent’s opponents, and an eye of a newt.

[And, yes, UCLA beat Hawai’i and Pepperdine this season, but the Bruins lost to Nebraska. And they were swept by USC (before the Trojans were swept by Washington). And they (cough, cough) lost to undefeated Washington. But surely you understand how that means UCLA has a higher RPI than Washington …]

Notice we wrote that RPI is supposed to “help” the committee. For two seasons running, coaches have complained that the RPI has, instead, become a committee crutch, used (they allege) in lieu of actually going out to see teams in action. The formula does not distinguish between razor-thin 2-3 losses and 0-3 blowouts, and penalizes teams on the West Coast who can’t convince strong teams out East to pay a preseason visit more than once in every while.

Last season, Washington’s 21-7 record earned it an RPI of 30, while Minnesota’s 16-11 record scored an RPI of 10 (the higher the better). That meant the Huskies had to travel to Minneapolis, where they dropped a five-set squeaker to the Gophers. Some thought the results would have likely been reversed if the match had been played in Seattle.

RPI rankings can and will change in the weeks ahead, and the only numbers that matters will be posted two days after Thanksgiving. That said, the first set of figures came out today, and offers a baseline for hardcore volleyball fans to start their own arguments.