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Women's Volleyball Match of the Week preview: Washington at Stanford

Oct 21, 2015
StanfordPhoto.com / Washington Athletics

Who: No. 4 Washington at No. 11 Stanford

When: Wednesday, Oct. 21, at 7:30 p.m. PT on Pac-12 Networks, with Krista Blunk and Amy Gant on the call.

Another Wednesday, another top-15 matchup for the Pac-12 Networks’ Women’s Volleyball Match of the Week, as Washington looks to keep it rollin’ on its trip to the Bay Area.

The Story So Far: No. 4 Washington (17-1, 7-1 Pac-12)

Fancy seeing you in primetime, Washington. This is the Dawgs’ third consecutive week on the Pac-12 Networks’ Match of the Week, and judging by their first two performances, they wouldn’t mind if they were on every 7:30 p.m. Wednesday night match from here on out.

The Dawgs have kept the gravy train rollin’ following a hard-fought four-set loss to USC, sweeping the Oregon schools at home in straight sets that included a defeat of the Beavers last Wednesday night. Completing a 4-0 homestand, the Dawgs remained at No. 4 in the latest AVCA rankings, marking the 200th consecutive poll that Washington women’s volleyball has been ranked (the team has made every poll from week one of the 2003 season on).

The only problem for Keegan Cook’s Crew is that it hasn’t been able to make up any ground on No. 1 USC, which just keeps on winning and is now 20-0 on the season. If the Huskies can survive the Bay Area swing and get to 19-1, then they’ll get their chance at revenge with a shot of at least tying the Trojans for first – Washington welcomes USC to Seattle on Oct. 30. Get your popcorn ready for that one.

The Story So Far: No. 11 Stanford (11-5, 5-3 Pac-12)

Stanford could really use a win Wednesday. No, a win over the Huskies won’t save its season – Stanford is one of four teams with a winning record in Pac-12 play and will be dancing for a 35th consecutive season save for a serious collapse (Stanford and Penn State are the only two schools to make every NCAA tournament). However, Stanford is used to not only being an elite program, but beating other elite programs – in a conference that sent 10 teams to the NCAA tournament in 2014, John Dunning’s bunch went 20-1 against Pac-12 teams (including a Sweet 16 victory over Oregon State). It beat Penn State and Illinois in the same weekend. It went 17-1 against ranked opponents in the regular season (3-1 against the top 10).

That’s the norm on The Farm. Losing to Colorado, a team it was 14-0 against until Sunday’s loss in Boulder, isn’t. Losing its last three contests to top-10 teams isn’t.

Wednesday is far from a season-deciding match for the Cardinal; heck, we’re not even halfway home in conference play yet. But a win against U-Dub could start to be a season-definer for a 2015 campaign that has seen the Cardinal have to play without All-American middle blocker Inky Ajanaku and with a less-than-100 percent All-American outside hitter Jordan Burgess for a portion of the season.

Three Players to Watch: Washington

  1. #10 Lianna Sybeldon (Middle Blocker, Senior)  I’m probably sounding like a broken record by now, but you should always keep an eye on the player with the best hitting percentage in all of women’s college volleyball. She “dragged” her attacking efficiency down to a national-best .470 by hitting “just” .379 combined against the Oregon schools. She also had nine blocks in those six sets, which is pretty, pretty good, in the words of Larry David.
  2. #12 Carly DeHoog (Outside Hitter, Sophomore) – If you’re an outside hitter and you’re hitting .352 for the year, you’re doing one heck of a job. DeHoog has now climbed into the top 10 in the Pac-12 (10th) with that mark and is coming off an error-free week against the Beavs and Ducks in which she hit a whopping .577 and averaged 2.5 kills per set.
  3. #20 Tia Scambray (Outside Hitter, Sophomore) – She had a team-best 24.5 points over the last two matches, going for 12 kills, two aces and two blocks against Oregon State and backing that up with seven kills, an ace and three blocks (not to mention 11 digs) against Oregon.

Three Players to Watch: Stanford

  1. #3 Hayley Hodson (Opposite, Freshman)  The No. 1 recruit in last year’s recruiting class is continuing to play like it, notching 22 kills in the four-set loss to Colorado and upping her average to 3.81 kills per set to lead the team. Watching her swing is a thing a beauty.
  2. #22 Madi Bugg (Setter, Senior) – The two-time Pac-12 Setter of the Year is starting to pick up her setting pace, piling up 53 assists in the Colorado match (13.25 per set). Once under 10 assists per set, Bugg has improved that number to 10.58, good for third in the Pac-12. Also, she needs 40 assists to move into third place in the Stanford record book for career helpers (she has 4,422 now). Beware of the dump with this one – she had four kills in six attempts in a three-set sweep of Utah.
  3. #14 Halland McKenna (Libero, Freshman) – Pronounced like the country, Halland has been solid in filling the shoes left behind by the great Kyle Gilbert. The collegiate rookie had 16 digs against the Buffs and 26 overall against the Mountain schools on the road last weekend and paces the team with 3.42 digs per set. Not quite the 4.74 mark Gilbert compiled her senior year in 2014 that was good for second in the Pac-12, but she’s still 10th in the conference in that department.

Three Notes to Know

  1. Best on offense, best on defense  The Huskies lead the nation with a .319 hitting percentage and are also first in the all the land with a .124 opponents’ hitting percentage. When you do that, it’s hard to lose. #analysis
  2. Five losses already? – Wanna know a healthy sign of a program? The Cardinal’s loss against Colorado gave the team its fifth loss in its 16th match of the season. This is the first time since 2000 that Stanford has been 11-5 or worse through 16 contests. To put it another way, Stanford had won at least 75 percent of its first 16 matches for 14 consecutive years.
  3. Will Stanford seniors protect this house? – Stanford’s seniors have helped the Cardinal go 53-2 during their time on The Farm, and both of those losses have come to USC. Can the Dawgs make it 53-3 and become the first non-Cali school the Stanford volleyball class of 2016 loses to at Maples Pavilion?
  4. Block party – Ok so I lied; here's a fourth note to know. Washington is fourth in the nation in blocks per set, while Stanford is fifth, so expect a lot of net rejections tonight.