Beat L.A: No. 10 Huskies roll past No. 5 USC, No. 12 UCLA

Joseph Landor on October 4, 2010 in College Entry

The 10th-ranked Washington volleyball team further asserted itself as one of the best teams in the Pac-10 this weekend at home, scoring a pair of signature victories over No. 5 USC and No. 12 UCLA.

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Senior Jenna Hagglund (14) sets up junior Bianca Rowland for a kill during the UW’s 3-0 sweep of UCLA on Saturday.

The Huskies (14-1, 3-1 Pac-10) scored a 3-2 win over the Trojans in a wild match on Friday night, and followed it up with a 3-0 sweep of the Bruins on Saturday.

Head volleyball coach Jim McLaughlin was pleased with the weekend’s results, but knows that the two wins are just the beginning of a tough conference schedule.

“It’s a step forward,” he said. “That’s all it is. We just have to learn from it and keep moving in the right direction. We had a tough win [against USC] and played well against a really good [UCLA] team.”

“Tough” is certainly an appropriate adjective to describe the match against the Trojans.

After winning both the first two sets 25-22 to take a 2-0 game lead, the Huskies hit only .040 and .026 in the third and fourth sets, respectively, making some critical errors toward the end of the fourth set that allowed USC (13-1, 2-1 Pac-10) to tie the game at two sets apiece.

But the UW quickly snapped out of its funk in the fifth set, jumping out to a 7-1 lead and extending it to a 15-5 win.

While McLaughlin said that there was “no magic” to the difference between the fifth set and the previous two, junior middle blocker Bianca Rowland attributed the victory to a change in mindset.

“I think we just shook off the [third and fourth sets],” she said. “We thought, ‘It’s even right now, it’s 2-2, we have one game to 15, and we’re not going to let them beat us in our house.’”

Rowland finished the match with 17 kills and 7 blocks. Senior outside hitter Becky Perry had a solid all-around game as well, finishing 12 digs and 20 kills, several of which came at pivotal moments in the fifth set.

Washington had a much easier time with UCLA (11-3, 1-2 Pac-10) on Saturday, earning a 25-20, 26-24, 25-17 victory in straight sets. The Huskies hit .333 on the night, a figure that McLaughlin attributes to senior setter Jenna Hagglund, who ran the offense while totaling 43 assists.

“She moved the ball around and did a really good job, and kept us on our game plan,” he said.

Junior middle blocker Lauren Barfield had a field day against the Bruins’ smaller front line, racking up nine blocks and seven kills with no errors to the tune of a .700 attack percentage.

“She got a return on all the work in practice,” McLaughlin said of Barfield. “It’s a real good thing when you learn how to work hard, and you learn how to get a return and you know it.”

But McLaughlin was most impressed by the way his team took care of business following a hard-fought match the previous night.

“I liked the way we answered the challenge of coming back after a tough game, an emotional game, and not hitting that valley,” he said. “It was hard for us to find the energy, but we had to manufacture it and keep it going.”

Washington returns to practice this week before taking on rival Washington State University. And after two big wins, McLaughlin thinks his team is in a good spot.

“It’s about us,” he said. “If we do what we’re supposed to do, I think we can handle anybody.”

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