UW volleyball loses to Cal, falls short of Final 4 again

Published 11:01 pm Saturday, December 11, 2010

SEATTLE — Monday will mark the five-year anniversary of the University of Washington’s lone national title in volleyball.

Thanks to a familiar nemesis, the Huskies won’t be going back this year.

Pac-10 champion Cal completed a three-match sweep of UW and knocked the Huskies out of the NCAA tournament by way of a 25-21, 25-20, 25-14 win in the region finals late Saturday night.

It was an appropriate opponent to knock out the Huskies, who won all 14 matches against non-conference opponents this season but went 10-9 against the Pac-10.

The Golden Bears (28-3) will face another conference rival, USC, in this week’s national semifinals in Kansas City. UW, which has now lost only three of 16 all-time postseason matches at Hec Edmundson Pavilion, fell short of the Final Four for the fourth consecutive year after making it there three years in a row. The Huskies won a national title in 2005.

This year’s team never seemed to have national-title expectations, but a hot start to the tournament carried high hopes into Saturday night’s match. UW (24-9) had already upset seeded teams Hawaii and Nebraska to get to the region final, and Saturday’s match proved that there was no magic left in the Huskies.

UW had early leads in each of the first two sets — 13-9 in the opener, and 7-4 in Game 2 — but fell behind 9-4 in the third set and never got back into contention. A 12-4 Cal run gave the Golden Bears a 22-12 lead en route to the most convincing set of the match.

“The vibe was good prior to the match, but I don’t know if we matched their energy level,” UW coach Jim McLaughlin said afterward. “One thing I was thinking is: maybe we spent it all (Friday) night against Nebraska.”

Senior Jenna Hagglund echoed the sentiment, saying the Huskies didn’t seem to have the same energy as they did in Friday’s four-set stunner.

But she added that Cal was a big reason why.

“They were just frustrating,” Hagglund said of the Golden Bears, who had 34 digs Saturday night. “That’s the sign of a good team.”

Senior Kindra Carlson did everything she could to keep UW in the first set, registering nine of the Huskies’ 13 kills. But Cal closed out with an 11-4 scoring run to win that set, 25-21.

Junior Bianca Rowland provided help in the second set, but Cal’s Tarah Murrey and Correy Johnson proved to be too much down the stretch in a 25-20 win.

The third set saw the Huskies take their final lead at 3-2, then get outscored 15-6 down the stretch to turn it into a laugher.

Carlson finished with 20 kills, more than twice as many as any teammate. Fellow senior Becky Perry struggled in her final match as a Husky, converting just 8 of 31 attacks. Sophomore Kylin Munoz, a first-year player from Monroe, had just one kill on 17 attacks.

As a team, UW’s attack percentage was .144, far below Cal’s .364 mark.

Rowland, a junior from Lynnwood, was one of two Huskies named to the all-region team. She was joined by Carlson on the seven-member squad.

Cal setter Carli Lloyd was named most outstanding player. She had 40 assists, eight digs and a block Saturday night.

The loss left UW’s seniors in tears during the post-match press conference. Hagglund broke into tears when talking about her four-year career, while Perry was silent and red-eyed for most of the period.

When Perry finally spoke, the senior and Texas native said she wouldn’t have traded her career for anything.

“A lot of teams won national championships, and we never did that,” she said. “But here, they build character. We have love, and we’re a family. And that might be a greater gift.”

McLaughlin was the only one able to look back on the 2010 season as a successful one Saturday night, even though the Huskies came up short. But even he had disappointment written all over his face.

“As hard as this team worked, you want to get the returns at that level,” he said of being one match from the Final Four, “and when you don’t, it stinks. But that’s sports.”

A few minutes later, several Huskies emerged from the locker room and were met by a round of applause from 100 or so fans remaining at Hec Edmundson Pavilion. The disappointment didn’t seem to last long.

“It’s just been awesome,” a teary-eyed Carlson said after the match. “The way we were to what we became is amazing. It was a fun ride.”