No. 3 UW wins Pac-10 title outright after defeating Bruins

By Ben Miller

Nov 29, 2004, 12:00 AM

The Washington women's volleyball squad clinched the outright Pac-10 title with a victory over UCLA Saturday, the first ever Pac-10 title in program history. "We started talking about Pac-10 championship in the third game," senior Sanja Tomasevic said. "It feels great, and this is just one step in Washington history." The No. 3 Huskies (24-2 overall, 16-2 Pac-10) faced off against No. 16 UCLA, needing a victory to win the conference outright after falling to USC Friday. The UW dropped the first game before bouncing back with three wins in the next three games, taking the match 3-1. Game scores were 29-31, 30-23, 30-23 and 30-24. "We started out slow, and then all of a sudden we kicked in and we were meeting our standards," coach Jim McLaughlin said. "I thought we had good composure, and I like the way we took care of the ball." Washington hit .246 as a team in the victory while holding the Bruins (18-10, 11-7) to just .157. The Husky offense was led by freshman Christal Morrison and Tomasevic, both registering double-digit kills. Morrison led all players with 25 kills just one shy of her career high set earlier this year, on a .327 individual hitting percentage. Tomasevic had 22 kills along with 20 digs. Along with Tomasevic, three other players had double-digit digs, including junior Candace Lee with 27, and Morrison and junior Danka Danicic each with 13. Becky Green led UCLA with 17 kills with a .250 hitting percentage. While Saturday was about a championship and celebration, the night before the Huskies suffered their second loss on the season to No. 6 USC. In a season that had not seen Washington drop a single game at home, the UW dropped its first two games in the match to two games down, losing the games 30-28 and 30-24, with the Women of Troy (19-5, 14-4) needing one more game to win the match "We didn't come out playing real well, and we just made a little error here, missed serve there, and it just added up," McLaughlin said. "Then all of a sudden we kicked it up a notch, and we took care of the ball, got into a nice rhythm and put pressure on them." With its back against the wall, Washington pushed it to a higher gear, taking the next two games 30-25 and 30-22, to force a one-game tiebreaker for the match. In the fifth game, the Huskies built an early 5-1 lead, but USC fought back, and with the help of a 6-1 run, won the game 15-17 and the match. In her first start since injuring her wrist earlier this season, Tomasevic put down 20 kills on a .242 hitting percentage while also collecting 30 digs. "It felt great [to be back on the court], but it would have felt so much better if we had won," Tomasevic said. "Their team played well and made some big plays." Freshman Alesha Deesing had a big night off the bench, adding 15 kills on a .467 hitting percentage. Morrison and senior Katlin Leck also had 15 kills. Washington moves on to postseason play where it will try to add a national championship to its conference title. The Huskies face Idaho in first-round action in Seattle Friday. The winner faces either Santa Clara or Kansas in the second round Saturday.

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