University of Washington
California
Huskies Fall To Sixth-Ranked Bears In Berkeley
October 16, 2010 | Volleyball
Oct. 16, 2010
BERKELEY, Calif. - The sixth-ranked Cal Bears were just a bit better from start to finish of tonight's Pac-10 volleyball showdown tonight, handing the seventh-ranked Huskies a 25-22, 25-22, 25-18 defeat at Haas Pavilion. The Huskies (15-3, 4-3 Pac-10) were swept for the first time since October of 2008. Cal improved to 17-1 and 7-1 to tie for the Pac-10 lead.
Senior Becky Perry led the way for the Huskies with 12 kills, but hit just .116 on the night, as UW was held under .200 hitting for just the second time this year, at .194. Bianca Rowland had 10 kills and hit .375, and Kindra Carlson added 11 kills, including the one thousandth kill of her career in the first set, but Cal connected for a .288 mark on offense and out-blocked UW 10.0-7.0. Tarah Murrey led the Bears with 19 kills.
Perry and Carlson posted back-to-back kills early in set one to give the Huskies the early 5-4 lead. But at 7-all, the Bears made a 6-0 run with two blocks and three kills from Murrey to open a 13-7 lead. UW tried to close the gap throughout the rest of the set, as a Rowland kill was followed by a wild Hagglund point where she bumped the ball back over her head and over for a well-placed kill to make it 20-17. A Perry roll shot went down for a kill and Barfield and Carlson roofed the next shot to cut it to 23-21 and force Cal to take time. But Cal took the set 25-22 after a Muñoz blast went wide. The Bears were on target with a .375 mark in the first set while UW hit at .239. Rowland had four kills on eight attempts without an error and Perry notched six kills.
At the start of the second set, Barfield had two kills over the first four points and another was ended by a Carlson solo stuff to give UW a 3-1 lead. Cal came back to level it at 4, but then UW reeled off five straight points for a 9-4 lead. Hagglund found Rowland, Carlson, and Perry in succession during the run, and Hagglund and Rowland teamed up for the block to cap the run. But Cal quickly countered with a 4-0 run of its own, and extended that to a 10-3 run to take a 14-12 lead and force UW to call timeout. Washington went down by as many as four, but forced a sea change yet again. Two straight kills from Barfield and Carlson halved the deficit, and after a series of sideouts, Rowland and Perry had back-to-back finishes to trim the lead to 20-19. Cal missed two-straight shots wide on alternate sides of the court and the Huskies had finally gotten even at 22-all. But out of a Cal timeout, the Bears ran off the final three points to take another 25-22 set and the 2-0 lead into break. Cal barely outhit the Dawgs .289-.279 in the second set, but two aces helped their case.
Trailing 0-2 for the first time this season, UW struggled to get it going early in the third set as Cal built up an 8-1 lead. Just when UW looked down and out, however, the Huskies came off the canvas swinging, with Carlson delivering huge blows on serve. She aced the Bears three times during a 6-0 run. Washington put on another run to come all the way back to tie it at 14-all after a kill from freshman Gabbi Parker and a block by Rowland and Carlson. But after drawing even, the Huskies let their foot off the accelerator a bit, and made three straight service errors to let Cal catch its breath. A Cal ace punctuated a 3-0 response and UW took its last timeout down 18-15. Rowland got her 10th kill of the night to break the string, but Cal then went on a 6-0 run to break it open, using three blocks during the surge. UW saved a pair of match points before Cal clinched it, 25-18.
Washington will look to bounce back from its first weekend sweep in two years at home as Arizona and Arizona State come to town next Friday and Saturday night, both matches set for 7 p.m.
