UW volleyball team heads into homestretch

Entering the final month of the regular season with a 20-0 record and the No. 2 ranking in the nation, what more does the Washington volleyball team have to prove?

Only that it can sustain its lofty level of play into next month's postseason — and win tonight's marquee matchup with No. 4 Stanford.

"Heading into November, we want to retain our focus and keep hitting on all cylinders, because when we do we're a dangerous team," said UW coach Jim McLaughlin, the 2004 national coach of the year. "We're playing together very well right now. We've got some good parts, but it's a collective deal. Kids get hot individually and still complement each other's strengths. That makes it very difficult on opponents."

Today's 7 p.m. match against Stanford comes one week after Washington's toughest test this season, a heart-clutching, five-game win over then-No. 9 Arizona.

Stanford (20-3 overall, 9-2 Pac-10) is last year's national champion and the team that eliminated the Huskies from the NCAA Final Four in the semifinals. Thus it's no surprise that UW players concede that beating Stanford, a six-time national champion, is a big deal.

The Huskies pulled it off Oct. 8 at Stanford, nearly sweeping the Cardinal in three games, then running away with the deciding fourth game, 30-15. It marked only the second time a UW squad had won at Stanford, the first since 1989.

Washington, meanwhile, has never beaten Stanford twice in the regular season. The 2003 Huskies did get two wins against the Cardinal in a single year with a win at home and in postseason. A win tonight would be a regular-season first and further entrench Washington as an ascending national power.

Even local fans feel the Stanford buzz. Last year UW attracted a school-record crowd, 5,712, to the Stanford home match — the fourth-largest crowd to attend a Pac-10 match.

McLaughlin, an analytical, clear-eyed tactician who works at keeping players focused on arm swings rather than mood swings, emphasizes that every opponent is important. He points out that Friday night's foe, 18th-ranked California (14-6, 7-4), is one of only two teams to extend UW to five games this season.

"With the Pac-10, you have to be careful with each team," McLaughlin said of the conference with six top-25 teams. "When you look at your record at the end of the year, beating Stanford is the same as beating anyone else.

"I don't know if they're a rival. Maybe the public or the media wants to develop that. With their tradition, though, it's neat to beat them and very meaningful. We have a tremendous respect for them, there's no doubt about that.

"To play well against a team that has the firepower they have, it would be a significant win. It's going to be a huge match, but when I look at it, every match is huge. The Cal match is a huge match. Which one is more important?"

Stanford will be without star freshman outside hitter Cynthia Barboza, lost for the season Oct. 12 with a torn knee ligament. Barboza, an alternate on the 2004 U.S. Olympic team as a high school senior, was leading the Pac-10 in kills when she was injured. Junior outside hitter Kristin Richards and freshman middle blocker Foluke Akinradewo are two of Stanford's premier players.

McLaughlin likened last week's see-saw match at Arizona (this week ranked No. 8) to a heavyweight title fight.

"We won an unbelievable match," he said of the five-game win. "There were some big-time punches being thrown. But I really liked the way we maintained our composure at critical times.

"It was a good deal for us. We grew as a team by responding to the resistance they put to us."

Notes

• Tonight's game will be taped and aired at 1 p.m. Saturday on FSN.

• Washington leads the country in hitting percentage (.363), ranks second in kills per game (17.29) and is sixth in assists (15.80). Setter Courtney Thompson tops the nation with 14.85 assists per game; middle blocker Alesha Deesing ranks second in hitting percentage (.456). UW is tops in the Pac-10 in opponents' hitting percentage (.113), kills and service aces (1.92), second in assists (15.80) and blocks (3.39).

• Washington is virtually assured of hosting first- and second-round tournament matches the first week of December. Regionals are Dec. 8-11, and the Final Four is in San Antonio Dec. 15 and 17.