University of Washington
USC
No. 8 USC Rallies to Defeat No. 5 Washington
November 16, 2007 | Volleyball
Nov. 16, 2007
LOS ANGELES - Behind a Pac-10 record 44 kills from Asia Kaczor, the No. 8 USC Trojans rallied from two games down to defeat the No. 5 Washington Huskies, 3-2, at the Galen Center on Friday night.
Trailing by two games, USC won games three and four before taking game five, 18-16, to improve to 22-4 overall and 11-4 in the Pac-10. Washington drops to 23-3 and 12-3 in the Pac-10. Game scores were 25-30, 29-31, 32-30, 30-27, 18-16.
In a battle of two of the nation's best outside hitters, Kaczor tallied 44 kills and Washington's Christal Morrison netted 30 kills, setting a new career-high. Both were All-America selections last year.
Kaczor, who racked up 18 kills in game three alone, broke the previous Pac-10 record of 43 kills set by UCLA's Natalie Williams against Hawaii on Sept. 7, 1991. She also set a Pac-10 record with 100 attacks.
USC took control early in the final game, opening a 6-2 lead before Washington stormed back, eventually taking a 12-11 lead on kill by Morrison. A Trojans attack error put UW up 13-12, but USC scored two straight points to regain the lead at 14-13.
Becky Perry tied it back up for Washington on a kill, USC regained the lead on a kill by Diane Copenhagen and then Perry tied it once again at 15-15 on another kill. Back-to-back attack errors by Morrison and Kaczor kept it tied, 16-16, before the Trojans scored the final two points.
Kaczor put the Trojans up by one on her Pac-10 record 44th kill of the night, and then she teamed up with Bethany Johansen to block an attack by Morrison, giving USC the game and the match.
After the first two games it appeared that the Huskies were on their way to a sweep in front of the 1,081 fans in attendance.
USC outhit the Huskies in game one, .220 to .205, but Washington benefited from six USC service errors on their way to winning, 30-25. Alesha Deesing scored the first point of the game on a kill and had four of the Huskies first 10 kills. Washington took its biggest lead at 19-12 on an ace by Stevie Mussie and the Trojans never really threatened again.
In the second game, Washington trailed 9-8 before a kill by Deesing and three straight by Morrison gave the Huskies a 12-9 lead. Washington ran its lead to 15-11 but the Trojans rallied to tie the game at 19-19 and eventually take a 22-21 lead on a kill by Kaczor. A kill by Perry tied it back up at 24-24 before USC took the game to game point at 29-26.
Washington wasn't done though, rattling off five straight points for the 31-29 win and silencing the Trojan faithful in attendance. A kill by Morrison, sandwiched between a Trojans service error and an attack error by Copenhagen tied it at 29-29. A Mussie kill gave the Huskies the lead and another attack error by Copenhagen gave Washington the win.
Jessica Swarbrick recorded two straight kills in the middle of game three to put Washington up 14-12. Kaczor then had three kills in a 5-1 USC run that gave the Trojans the lead back at 19-18. The Huskies went back up by two, 24-22, on another kill by Swarbrick, but USC scored four straight points for a 26-24 lead. From there, the game was tied four more times, with the last tie coming at 30-30 after a kill by Morrison. But two straight Husky attack errors gave USC the 32-30 win.
USC opened up a commanding lead to start game four, going on a 13-3 run to start the game before leading 21-10 later on. Washington fought its way back into the game, though, going on an 8-0 run at one point. With the Trojans leading 23-14, Perry knocked down a kill that started the eight-point run to bring UW within one, 23-22. The Huskies tied it at 24-24 on a Morrison kill, but USC eventually would win on a kill by Jessica Gysin.
The loss puts the Huskies one-and-a-half games back of Stanford in the Pac-10 Championship race. The Cardinal, who swept Arizona State tonight, are 14-2 in the Pac-10.
The Huskies had a handful of players put up great numbers. In addition to Morrison's new career-high 30 kills, she tallied 14 digs for her 11th double-double of the year. She had 77 attacks on the night, setting a UW season-high and a new career-high. Deesing set a new season-high in kills with 13 and also tied her career-high in blocks with 11.
Swarbrick also set a season-high in kills for the Huskies, notching 14 while hitting .400 to lead the UW. Tamari Miyashiro set a career-high with 38 digs and Jenna Hagglund set a career-high with 75 assists, falling three short of the Washington school record set by Courtney Thompson in 2004. Miyashiro was two off the UW record of 40 digs by Candace Lee, also set in 2004.
Megan McAfee added a career-best 14 digs for the UW, Hagglund and Mussie added nine digs each, and Hagglund had a career-high eight blocks. The Huskies finished with 19.5 team blocks, a season-best.
USC also received 13 kills from Gysin and Taylor Carico, with Carico hitting a match-best .722 and tallying 69 assists from her setter position. Copenhagen added 11 kills and Alli Hillgren led USC with 26 digs.
The two teams finished with almost identical hitting percentages, USC at .254 and the Huskies at .250. The Trojans had 90 kills to Washington's 83, and both teams had 30 attack errors.
Washington plays again tomorrow night, this time at No. 10 UCLA, who won 3-0 over Washington State tonight. The Huskies swept the Bruins in Seattle back on Oct. 18. Match-time is set for 7 p.m. at Pauley Pavilion.
NOTES: USC leads the all-time series 33-14 ... the Trojans extended their home match winning streak to 22 straight ... Washington last won in Los Angeles in 2005 ... the Huskies had season-highs in kills (83), attacks (212), assists (81) and digs (96) ... Morrison finished with 33.5 points, a new career-high ... Morrison needs 26 more kills to become the Huskies all-time career leader in that category. She had 1,770 kills and trails only Sonja Tomasevic, who had 1,795 kills from 2002-05.
