Seniors Work To Get The Vibe Right
December 02, 2010 | Volleyball
Dec. 2, 2010
By Gregg Bell
UW Director of Writing
Seniors Kindra Carlson, Becky Perry and Jenna Hagglund have waited their entire Huskies volleyball careers for this.
No, not appearing in an NCAA tournament. That's expected at UW. Thursday's first-round match at home against 23rd-ranked Michigan (23-9) at 7:30 p.m. will begin Washington's ninth consecutive appearance in the national playoffs.
No, the three seniors have forged through adversity and effort a unity, a "vibe," they say their previous Husky teams lacked.
"This year, we finally figured out how to come together," Carlson said Wednesday in a hallway at Hec Edmundson Pavilion - where the 11th-ranked Huskies (21-8) could play all the way into the Final Four in Kansas City, Mo., if they win four consecutive home matches over the next two weekends. The NCAA had already chosen Seattle as a host site for the 2010 regional rounds.
"In previous years, there's always been that the vibe just hasn't been right," said Carlson, an outside hitter who with Perry usually flank setter extraordinaire Hagglund. "This year, it's been different. It's been individuals coming together as one.
"This year, we finally figured it out."
Perry has needed the togetherness after enduring the shocking death of her older sister and best friend Tiffanie early this season. That was weeks after she had joined Carlson and Hagglund in focusing this summer on making their team more closely knit.
"We'd never gotten the vibe right before," Perry said.
The senior from Austin, Texas, said that vibe wasn't right when she redshirted in 2006, even though that was the season after the Huskies won the NCAA title.
As juniors, she and her classmates saw lack of unity as an issue last season, when the Huskies finished second in the Pac-10 but were then upset in the second round of the NCAAs at Colorado State.
After four years playing together, Perry and Carlson two are just five kills apart, both having gone over 1,000 career kills earlier this season. Perry is 10th in school history and Carlson is ninth. Carlson, from Eaton, Colorado, was an All-American last season and Perry was one in 2008.
Along with Hagglund, Washington's starting setter for the past four years who has compiled the second-most career assists in school history, the seniors have led UW to the NCAA Elite Eight in 2008 and to 20-win seasons every year.
But talent alone hasn't taken them far enough.
The seniors' efforts to draw this season's team together got a boost by unexpected and narrow losses. Washington's eight defeats - only one of them in straight sets -- are the most in coach Jim McLaughlin's UW program since 2003. And the Huskes' fifth-place finish in the Pac-10 was the first time in seven years they didn't finish first or second in the conference.
"It's brought us a lot closer, these trials and tribulations this season," McLaughlin said. "I think we've become closer as a family and have a trust within each other from having grown together.
"What's different about this team is that ... is that it is able to handle adversity. We haven't been able to do that the last couple years. That's the best thing about this group. When you start working together and have that vibe, then you can handle adversity. And we are going to be stressed by teams in this tournament. But that togetherness, that's what's different about this group."
These Dawgs have another advantage besides togetherness in this NCAA tournament: Home-court advantage.
They can thank a neighbor for that.
"We were lucky Portland State won their league," Perry said.
PSU's victory in five sets last week over Northern Colorado for the Big Sky conference title allowed the cost-conscious NCAA to put a subregional in Seattle, so the Vikings could drive to it. In just about every sport these days, the NCAA tries to pair a host school with a tournament qualifier nearby to lessen travel costs for at least two teams at a first- and second-round site.
Portland State (21-8) faces Western Athletic Conference-champion Hawaii (28-2), the nation's No. 7 team, in Thursday's other first-round game at 5 p.m. The winner of that game meets the Michigan-Washington winner in Friday night's second round at Hec Ed at 7:30.
Northern Colorado winning the Big Sky's automatic NCAA berth in 2009 was the reason Washington ended up opening last season's tournament on Colorado State's home court, because Northern Colorado could take a low-cost trip up the road to CSU in Fort Collins. Had Portland State won the Big Sky last season, Washington could have hosted the Vikings and others in the early rounds.
And, yeah, that matters.
"It's the greatest thing to see Seattle, Washington, on the screen during that (NCAA) selection show - before you even know who you are going to play," McLaughlin said. "Being at home, it's a powerful thing. It's a good thing. We've been good at home."
Washington went 9-2 at Hec Ed this season, and enjoyed the nation's sixth-highest home attendance at more than 3,000 loud fans - including a band and a raucous Dawg Pack student section -- per match.
"Just look at the percentages," McLaughlin said. "It's an advantage."
Michigan certainly sees it that way. The Wolverines, who have won three consecutive NCAA first-round games, had to fly all day Tuesday to Seattle.
"Washington was practicing at home and we were flying across the country, then had to find a junior college to practice," Michigan coach Mark Rosen said.
"It's just the way it is. We can't argue. It's a cost-containment issue for the NCAA. It's not something we have a lot of say in."
The Huskies will look to capitalize on the familiar home environment starting tonight.
