UW set to face Kansas in volleyball regionals

Published 11:28 pm Thursday, December 12, 2013

SEATTLE — The Washington Huskies’ goal is simple: They want to play two more volleyball matches in Seattle.

The Huskies are in Los Angeles this weekend to compete in the NCAA regionals. Washington, seeded third, plays 14th-seeded Kansas at 5 p.m. today at the Galen Center. The winner plays again Saturday against the winner of tonight’s USC-BYU match.

The regional champion advances to Seattle for the Final Four, set for Dec. 19-21 at KeyArena. Washington (28-2) is trying to reach its first Final Four since 2006.

The Huskies defeated Alabama State in their NCAA opener last Friday in straight sets, then rebounded from a first-set loss to defeat LSU in the second round on Saturday. Against LSU, Washington’s Krista Vansant had 24 kills and a .370 attack percentage, her second-most kills this season.

Kansas (25-7) reached the round of 16 with consecutive 3-1 victories at home last weekend over Wichita State and Creighton. UW and Kansas have never met in volleyball.

By contrast, Washington and sixth-seeded USC are very familiar with each other. The Huskies won in the Galen Center in October, the first road win for Washington at USC since 2008. Washington also won 3-1 in Seattle in November, a victory that helped propel the Huskies to the Pac-12 championship. USC (28-5) rolled to the regional with sweeps of New Hampshire and Cal State Northridge in the first two rounds.

BYU (24-6) is unseeded but picked up one of the biggest upsets of the tourney so far, sweeping 11th-seeded Hawaii in front of more than 8,000 fans in Honolulu, one day after outlasting Arizona State in five sets in the first round.

Saturday’s regional final will be televised on ESPNU, with the match starting at 8:30 p.m.