Formidable Stanford taking on UW

By Ben Miller

Oct 7, 2005, 12:00 AM

The No. 2 Husky volleyball team will face its greatest foe so far this weekend. Last year, Stanford stopped the UW's streak of 22 consecutively won matches. More importantly, Stanford eliminated the UW team from the NCAA Championship Tournament. On Saturday, the Huskies head down to Palo Alto to play the No. 3 Cardinals for the first time this season. The emotions created from the crushing losses last season might seem as a point of concern for the Huskies, but Coach Jim McLaughlin said otherwise. "I think that stuff fades pretty fast," coach Jim McLaughlin said about his team's opponents. "There is always incentive to do better, and that's what we are focusing on: just improving." This weekend, the volleyball squad also faces No. 13 California. The second-ranked Huskies (12-0 overall, 3-0 Pac-10) will face California tonight, with Stanford on deck tomorrow. The UW is 3-0 against top-25 teams going into the weekend. "I know they are both really good teams and they are very good at home," said McLaughlin. "They are physical, and they don't make a lot of errors." Six weeks into the season, Washington remains as just one of six teams in the CSTV/AVCA top 25 that remains undefeated. Among the unbeaten is No. 1 Nebraska, which the Huskies trail by 64 points in the poll. The Golden Bears (11-2, 4-0) enter the match against the UW on fire. They have won their last six matches and are coming off a sweep of Oregon and Oregon State last weekend on the road. Prior to last season, Cal had won the previous three matches the two teams had played, but last year Washington swept the Golden Bears twice on its way to a Pac-10 title. "Cal is good everywhere," McLaughlin said. "They have a little outside hitter, [Angie] Pressey, who is one of the most physical kids in the conference." Pressey powers the California offensive attack. The 5-foot-8-inch sophomore leads the team with 4.73 kills per game. Setter Samantha Carter controls the ball for the Golden Bears, assisting on an average 13.48 kills each game. The UW took the lead in the all-time series last year, putting the record at 22-21 between the two teams. This season, the defending national champion Stanford (15-1, 4-0) is still a force to be reckoned with. Even with its best player from a year ago -- Olympian Ogonna Nnamani -- lost to graduation, the Cardinal has only dropped one match all season, and that was to top-ranked Nebraska in Omaha. Trailing the UW by only one spot in the poll, Stanford is the biggest challenger to the Pac-10 crown for the Huskies this season. The high-powered Cardinal attack is led by Cynthia Barboza and Foluke Akinradewo, who are both averaging over 4.00 kills per game. Barboza kills the ball 4.67 times per game while Akinradewo chips in 4.25. For the Huskies, sophomore Alesha Deesing is currently leading the entire nation in hitting percentage with .540. "We want to win it and the best way to control that is to control today and keep improving," McLaughlin said. "We plan to be a better team at the end of this road trip."

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