University of Washington
Cal
No. 4 Huskies Take Down No. 7 Cal, 3-1
November 09, 2007 | Volleyball
Nov. 9, 2007
SEATTLE - Behind the play of Christal Morrison and Becky Perry, the fourth-ranked Washington volleyball team defeated No. 7 California, 3-1, on Friday night, avenging an earlier loss to the Golden Bears in Berkeley.
With the win, the Huskies remain in the hunt for the Pac-10 title at 23-2 overall and 12-2 in the Pac-10. Cal falls to 20-6 overall and 10-5 in Pac-10 play. Game scores were 16-30, 30-21, 30-26, 30-22.
Despite being outhit .217 to .174 and losing the first game, the Huskies rebounded to win the final three games in front of 3,768 fans at Bank of America Arena. The win keeps Washington one-half game back of Stanford (13-2 Pac-10) in the Pac-10 championship race.
After having their school-record 39-match home winning streak snapped last night by No. 5 Stanford, the Huskies were looking for a better performance tonight against a Golden Bears team that handed them their first loss of the season back on Oct. 11.
"It's real important," said Huskies head coach Jim McLaughlin about his team needing a win following their setback last night. "After a real tough, tough loss it shows a lot of guts, it shows a lot of character, it shows a lot of that stuff that you have to have to make a run in the tournament. Our girls showed tonight that they have that stuff."
The Huskies played perhaps their worst game of the season in the opening stanza, with only eight kills and a .000 hitting percentage. Cal opened the game with four straight points and later went on a 5-0 run to take a 12-5 lead. The Golden Bears used a seven-point run to open a 24-10 lead on their way to the 30-16 win.
From there, though, the Huskies began to take control. They hit .286 in the second game and led for much of the way. After an early 2-2 tie, the Huskies would lead the rest of the second game, opening up a nine-point lead at 21-12 before finally winning 30-21.
"I told the girls that it takes three games to win this thing," said McLaughlin. "I said to them `let's forget about that game and let's start over.' We finally settled down in the second game."
Game three featured 16 tie scores and five lead changes. Neither team was able to open up more than a three point lead during the game before the Huskies settled for the 30-26 win. With the score tied at 26-26, Washington scored the final four points for the victory.
Cal took an 11-10 lead in the final game but a kill by Perry tied things up. Megan McAfee then served four straight points to give Washington a 15-11 lead and the Huskies didn't look back, winning going away, 30-22.
"We were a lot more aggressive in transition, a lot more patient and we got good swings," commented McLaughlin on his team's play tonight compared to their match against Stanford the previous night.
Morrison, who finished the night with 17 kills and eight digs, became Washington's all-time leader in attacks, finishing with 44 on the night. She now has 4,398 attacks for her career and took over the lead from Sonja Tomasevic, who had 4,388 attacks from 2002-05.
Perry led the Huskies with a .316 hitting percentage and had nine kills, Stevie Mussie added 14 digs and seven kills, and Tamari Miyashiro finished with 10 digs. Jenna Hagglund led Washington with 35 assists.
The Huskies tallied nine service aces during the match with Morrison, Hagglund and McAfee each recording two apiece.
Angie Pressey led the Cal offensive attack with 18 kills and also added 11 digs. Hana Cutura also finished with a double-double, registering 15 kills and 10 digs.
Kristen Kathan paced Cal with 18 digs and Carli Lloyd led all players with 53 assists.
Washington hits the road to face two more nationally-ranked teams next week. First up is No. 6 USC on Friday, Nov. 16 at 7:30 p.m. That match will air live on FSN Northwest. The following night, the Huskies take on No. 9 UCLA at 7 p.m.
NOTES: Washington leads the all-time series 27-22 and has won six of the past seven against Cal ... Morrison needs 56 more kills to pass Tomasevic for the Husky career record. Tomasevic had 1,795 kills during her career and Morrison has accumulated 1,740 up to this point ... Jessica Swarbrick led the Huskies with six total blocks and Perry added five more ... after siding out at just 30 percent in game one, Washington sided out at 64 percent the rest of the way ... not since their match against Arizona State on Oct. 4 had the Huskies only had one player finish with double-digits in kills.
