Huskies' Tamari Miyashiro hoping for a shot at NCAA volleyball title

Can she dig it? Yes, she can. Like few others.

Tamari Miyashiro, libero of the Washington volleyball team and Volleyball magazine's two-time national defensive player of the year, is the UW career leader in digs, with 2,115, third-best in Pac-10 history. Three weeks ago, she passed the libero of UW's 2005 national championship team, Candace Lee.

The record is nice, says Miyashiro, who as a walk-on redshirt practiced daily with the 2005 squad. But her real goal is to be an on-court participant of another championship team, a task she and the No. 4-ranked Huskies will continue pursuing this week.

Washington (15-1, 5-1 Pac-10), aiming to rebound from a tough 3-2 loss at fifth-ranked Stanford on Saturday, hosts No. 12 UCLA at 6 p.m. Friday and 16th-ranked USC at 7 p.m. Saturday at Edmundson Pavilion.

"I contributed to a national championship [when UW swept favored Nebraska 3-0 in San Antonio in 2005] with my training, and it's been the best moment of my life since I've been in college," said Miyashiro, a second-team All-American last year. "But it's a different thing when you're the one making all those decisions on the court.

"It's cool when you're in the heat of the moment and you're the one being tested and feeling pressure. It's a great test of who you are as a player. Playing for a championship is definitely on my list of what I want to do before I leave college."

The 5-foot-7 Miyashiro, a fifth-year senior and art major from Kaneohe, Hawaii, excels at volleyball's most undervalued position.

Liberos are back-line defensive specialists who play with restrictions. They cannot spike while jumping or use their hands to set a ball in front of the three-meter line. (Bumps are OK.) They wear a different-colored jersey so officials can watch for such infractions.

While digs give liberos a numeric performance benchmark, their most vital responsibilities are receiving opponent's serves, delivering easy-to-distribute passes to a setter and serving effectively.

Miyashiro understands how important her role is in anchoring UW's serve-receive game.

"People notice the great digs, but without trained eyes they don't realize how important it is to have really good serve-receive," she said. "You have to have an attitude that you want to be really great at it."

Washington coach Jim McLaughlin, in his 19th season and the only coach to win NCAA titles with men (USC, 1990) and women (UW, 2005), has high praise for Miyashiro's skills.

"She's maybe the best all-around volleyball player I've ever coached," said McLaughlin, "and she's twice the person she is the volleyball player. She always takes care of people, always has a good attitude. She walks the walk all the time, and people follow her. If I could define good, it would be Tama."

Miyashiro, a setter and outside hitter in high school, was lightly recruited. She attracted UW's interest only after sending tapes to all Pac-10 schools, and McLaughlin persuaded her to walk on and redshirt.

He transformed her into a libero after serving a string of balls to her during a practice. "I told our coaches we've got a big-time libero on our squad," McLaughlin recalled.

Miyashiro, who has started every match for UW since 2006, trained three weeks this summer with the U.S. national team in Anaheim, Calif., and has been invited to return in January.

McLaughlin says her court vision and awareness set her apart.

"She's got impeccable eyework," he said. "She's always looking at the right thing at the right time. She's looking at the set, the hitter's angle of approach, the hitter's shoulders. It's an intricate thing, very precise.

"There are a lot of attractive things that can distract you, but she's got really good discipline and reads situations better than anybody. Therefore she's in good spots all the time. She has a great feel for the game."

McLaughlin, renowned for his stat obsession, tracks "perfect-pass percentage." A perfect pass from Miyashiro would be a "three," meaning the pass is so skillfully positioned that setter Jenna Hagglund could set any of UW's three outside hitters. That keeps opposing defenses guessing, slowing their reaction time.

"You want to pass the ball to the middle of the court, maybe one foot off the setter, to the right, and four feet off the net," Miyashiro said. "My standard for the end of the year is seven out of 10 serves, 70 percent. That's pretty high."

"She's increased her level of play every year, and already she's had some matches where she's passed over 70 percent," McLaughlin said. "That's something very few volleyball players at any level can do. She's the best passer in the country, and at some point I think she'll be the best passer in the world."

Might we see Miyashiro, the quiet kid who has evolved into a lead-by-example presence at the core of UW's lineup, wearing red, white and blue on a court in the future?

"I'm her coach and I'm biased," McLaughlin said, "but I'm expecting her to be on the roster in the Olympic Games."

First things first, Miyashiro says. Like an NCAA title in December.

"The [digs] record is great," Miyashiro said. "But anything great we do as a team will be way more meaningful than any individual record."