Digging McLaughlin's style

During the last three weeks, the Washington women's volleyball team has dispatched five straight ranked opponents, culminating with last weekend's sweep of both No. 21 UCLA and No. 19 USC. The undefeated Huskies have their sights set on San Antonio, looking for a repeat trip to the Final Four and another shot at a national title. Such goals were an unheard of proposition just five years ago. When UW head coach Jim McLaughlin first took the reigns of the team, the dominance of the present day seemed a long way off. At that point, he was just concerned with improving a team that had finished last in the Pac-10 the season before. "We never paid attention to winning the championship, we just felt like if we got better the wins would come," McLaughlin said. "Anyone that has been part of something where you have to invest everything you have emotionally, mentally and physically knows it's not a magic show. It takes a lot of work and you have to do all the right things the right way." In 2000, under coach Bill Neville, the Huskies finished 8-19 with only two wins in the conference. The program was struggling, and the UW turned to McLaughlin to spin things around. "I don't know what was happening before I got here, I wasn't concerned with that," he said. "We started to approach things differently and started to get things in place and went about the way we do things today. Change takes time, but it's working out." McLaughlin has an approach to the sport that takes volleyball as more than just a game. During her recruitment, senior Sanja Tomasevic was impressed with how he spoke so differently about the game than she had heard from other before. "He was raising volleyball on a different level," she said. "He was talking about volleyball more like a science than like a game. He was talking about numbers and percentages, and I learned in the meantime that it could be a science." His system uses the idea of setting certain standards for his team to reach every day, every week and every season. "We say here's what we need to be any good and here's what we need to do to be a great team and win a championship," McLaughlin said. "I just think you have to be very objective, you can't be subjective. I wasn't afraid to tell the team that we're not a good team yet, but if we do the right things the right ways we will become a good team." He also isn't afraid to make players earn their playing time in practice. "We have this thing called the cauldron where we just put in all of our stats from practice and games," said senior Brie Hagerty. "If all of your numbers are the best, you will be the number one outside hitter, and you can tell by your numbers if you're going to play and if you're not going to play." By not having a set lineup every week, it leaves it up to the players whether they play in the games. Because of that it breeds a great deal of competition in practice. "Just because there is a competition, I am going to work [harder] to get here," Tomasevic said. "That's why our practice is so competitive, because everyone wants to meet their standards. The competitive edge in practice is so much higher than it is in games, before California and Stanford, we hadn't been challenged in a match like we were getting challenged in practice every day." Because of the intensity and competition in practice, the team aims to keep improving every week, and it is that outlook that has led the team to where it is now. In each of the last five seasons McLaughlin have been at the helm, there has been noticeable improvement over the season before it. "As soon as I came to this team and started talking to coaches and started practicing and believing in the system, I knew that we were going to do something like this," Tomasevic said. "Every single one of use believed in what we were doing." The Huskies have made the NCAA tournament in each of the past three seasons and appear headed that way again without the occurrence of a massive letdown. However, so far the road to a championship has come in steps. In 2001, the team made it to the second round before being swept by Hawaii, but it was the results of the next few years that allowed the phrase "national championship contender" to be in the same sentence as Washington this season. Finishing fifth in the Pac-10 in 2003, the UW got hot in the tournament and won three games -- including an upset over conference foe Stanford -- before losing a five game battle in the Elite Eight to Minnesota. It was the furthest a Washington volleyball team had ever gone in the NCAA tournament up to that point. Last season saw another step forward as they spent seven weeks ranked as the top team in the nation and had a visit to the Final Four. "Our favorite part of all this is knowing that we were part of making this program and starting the tradition," Hagerty said. "We kind of set up the bar for the girls that are coming in after us, and we got the program better and recruits are going to start taking notice." Slowly, with each hard practice the team has improved. It has taken years, but the results of McLaughlin's grand plan are already evident. From last place in the conference to second in the nation -- as it is ranked -- the Washington women's volleyball team has come a long way. But come December, for the players and a coach who have battled from the bottom to the top, the ultimate goal is finally within reach.

Digging McLaughlin's style

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