SEATTLE – Now the Washington volleyball team can forget about last year.
They can ditch the notion that fate would never allow them to reach the NCAA Final Four.
After eight trips to the regional tournament that ended their season, including last year when they lost the deciding fifth game of the final by an agonizing six points, the Huskies have moved into new territory.
They broke away late in the fifth game Saturday night to beat six-time national champion UCLA three games to two and win the regional title before a noisy crowd of 4,532 at Hec Edmundson Pavilion.
In a match that was filled with momentum changes in each game, the Huskies prevailed by scoring nine of the last 10 points for a 15-9 victory in the deciding game. Earlier, UCLA won the first game 30-27 and the Huskies captured the next two, 30-19 and 30-28, before the Bruins came from nine points behind to win the fourth game 30-24.
It put the Huskies, 28-2, in the Final Four this week at Long Beach, Calif., where they will face Stanford on Thursday.
“We’re not done,” UW coach Jim McLaughlin said. “The end we’re working for is the national title. I believe we’re capable of playing well enough to win this thing.”
The Final Four, in fact, will be dominated by Pac-10 teams. Stanford beat Wisconsin in three games to win the Green Bay regional and USC, the defending national champion, needed five games to beat Nebraska and advance to its Final Four semifinal against Minnesota, which won its regional in Minneapolis.
The only disappointment was the limited availability of freshman outside hitter Christal Morrison, a hero in Friday night’s victory over St. Mary’s. Morrison, who had come back from a knee injury, now has a left foot injury and McLaughlin isn’t certain of her status this week.
Junior Brie Hagerty got considerable playing time because of Morrison’s injury, and she starred with 15 kills. Senior outside hitter Sanja Tomasevic led the Huskies with 18 kills.
Both Hagerty and Tomasevic made huge plays in the fifth game.
Hagerty’s cross-court kill tied the score 8-8 and, after a UCLA error gave the Huskies a 9-8 lead, she slammed home three more balls as UW stretched its margin and seized the momentum.
Hagerty, it turned out, had more than a little persuasion coming from the UW bench.
“Jim (Coach McLaughlin) was yelling at me, ‘Hit the ball! Just hit it!’” she said. “I just sucked in some air and went after the ball as hard as I could.”
UCLA (22-11) didn’t have a chance.
“I don’t know if you would classify either of us as heavyweights, but in the end we were going at each other with not a whole lot left,” UCLA coach Andy Banachowski said.
Jessica Veris’ kill made it 13-9 for UW, the Bruins pushed one wide for a 14-9 score, and Tomasevic’s block of Colby Lyman’s attempted slam dropped to the floor for the clinching point.
In one moment, the Huskies erased a painful memory – the 15-9 loss to Minnesota in the fifth game of the regional final last year – that had served as their motivation this season.
“On their own, they kept using ‘Six points away, Six points away’ as their motivation,” McLaughlin said. “The loss last year was extremely tough. And now we win it by six points. Ironic.”
And cause for a wild celebration by the Huskies that didn’t stay on the court very long. At Tomasevic’s urging, the players bolted up an aisle and onto a walkway halfway into the stands, where they circled the arena and celebrated with high fives and hugs for many in the crowd.
“We’re tired, UCLA is tired and the crowd is probably tired too,” UW setter Courtney Thompson said. “Volleyball is such a game of ups and downs and ebbs and flows. We talk so much about being composed throughout. We knew if we could just keep it close, in the end we would have the people to step it up.”
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
