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2009 NCAA.com Division I Women's Volleyball Blog

Highlights from the Weekend: October 22-25

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robbins-wsu.jpg Cassie Robbins and Washington State took part in the Attacking Breat Cancer Pink Campaign and knocked off Washington

The biggest upset of the weekend came on Friday in Pullman, as Washington State - the first team outside of the Top 25 - snapped a 12-match losing streak against its biggest rival and registered an 18-25, 25-22, 25-21, 25-22 victory over No. 4 Washington in front of 2,724 fans. Meagan Ganzer led the Cougars with 15 kills, while three players in the match - UW's Tamari Miyashiro (28) and the WSU pair of Oceana Bush (23) and Jackie Albright (22) - had 20+ digs.

The showdown in the SEC didn't disappoint, as seventh-ranked Kentucky eventually prevailed in five (25-23, 19-25, 16-25, 25-15) over No. 20 LSU on Saturday. Sarah Mendoza paced UK with 21 kills and 12 digs, while LSU had 17 blocks in the losing effort - with Lauren DeGirolamo and Brittnee Cooper taking part in nine each.

Two of the elite teams in the Big Ten also matched up on Saturday, and No. 9 Minnesota pulled out a four-set (20-25, 25-19, 25-22, 25-10) win over 11th-ranked Michigan in front of a crowd of 7,547. Taylor Carico set the Gophers to a .298 hitting mark, with Tabitha Love leading the attack with 29 kills on .455 hitting. Minnesota had a big advantage at the net, outblocking the Wolverines 15-5 - which was a big part of U-M hitting just .148.

No. 12 Oregon headed to Los Angeles for the weekend and could not come away with a victory. On Friday, it was 13th-ranked UCLA earning a 26-24, 25-18, 22-25, 22-25, 15-9 triumph over the Ducks. Amanda Gil had 14 kills on .345 hitting and also was in on 10 of the Bruins' 18.5 blocks. Sonja Newcombe had 22 kills and 23 digs for UO in the losing effort. Newcombe had 21 kills and 10 digs in just three sets the following afternoon, but the Ducks were edged in each of those frames in a 26-24, 25-23, 30-28 defeat at the hands of No. 18 USC. Alex Jupiter led the Women of Troy with 19 kills, while Alli Hillgren had 20 digs.

No. 16 Arizona suffered a similar fate to Oregon - as the Wildcats returned home with a pair of losses against two of the best teams in the Pac-10. The Wildcats lost in four (25-19, 21-25, 25-16, 25-16) against California on Friday. That match featured one of the top individual performances of the weekend, as Cal's Hana Cutura posted 31 kills on just 47 swings for a .638 hitting mark - and also added 11 digs. Junior setter Carli Lloyd helped the Bears to a .331 attack percentage as a team. On Sunday, sixth-ranked Stanford swept Arizona 25-22, 25-21, 25-23 in front of 2,131 fans. The Cardinal had six service aces in the match and got 11 kills on .429 hitting from Janet Okogbaa. - while Arizona's Whitney Dosty led all players with 15 kills.

There were two other instances of unranked teams pulling off upsets. The first came on Thursday, as TCU cooled off the newest member of the Top 25 with a 25-23, 25-22, 25-10 win against 25th-ranked Colorado State in front of a record crowd of 1,875 in Fort Worth. TCU got 11 kills from Christy Hudson, and Megan Munce had three of the Horned Frogs' seven aces, as TCU held the Rams to a .097 hitting mark and snapped CSU's 12-match winning streak.

On Friday, UC Santa Barbara upset 19th-ranked UC Irvine in a five-set decision (14-25, 25-22, 17-25, 25-22, 19-17) on the road. The Gauchos got 28 kills and 13 digs from Rebecca Saraceno, as well as 26 digs from Chelsey Lowe on the way to improving to 4-1 against ranked teams this season - and sweeping the season series with the Anteaters. UCI held statistical advantages in just about every category - including kills, hitting percentage, aces, digs and blocks - but came up short in the end despite 22 kills from Kari Pestolesi.

Both undefeated teams remained that way without much difficulty. Top-ranked Penn State beat Indiana 25-19, 25-13, 25-17 on Friday and dominated Purdue 25-13, 25-15, 25-12 the following day. Megan Hodge had 16 kills on .538 hitting against the Hoosiers, while Alisha Glass set the Lions to a .362 team mark against IU and a .438 percentage vs. the Boilermakers. No. 2 Texas beat Colorado 25-23, 25-12, 25-15 on Saturday. Michelle Kocher set the Longhorns to a .443 hitting percentage, and Destinee Hooker had six service aces for UT.

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5 Comments

WSU has beaten several ranked teams including USC and Arizona. I think it is a shame that those teams are still ranked ahead of them. based strictly on this year's play, WSU deserves better.

Go Cougs!

[Aaron Couch]: Somewhat agreed. The RPI http://web1.ncaa.org/app_data/weeklyrpi/2009WVBrpi1.html tells (more of) the story:

- vs 17th hardest, 11-0 (non) + 4-5 (conf): Arizona. Equiv: We both swept Utah neutral. Adv WSU: #13 USC {1-3 @UA, 0-3 @WSU}. Adv WSU: #11 Oregon 1-3 @Az vs. #4 Washington 1-3 @WSU.
- vs 24th hardest, 11-1 (non) + 4-5 (conf): USC. Loss @Michigan State. Signature: #9 Cal 2-3 @USC.
- vs 30th hardest, 12-0 (non) + 5-4 (conf): WSU. I think WSU gets an RPI penalty because everybody else has beat up on Idaho and Utah, too :)

Well, we play 'em all again, starting with the Arizona trip. Beat them twice and that'll settle it.

(Aaron Couch): AMEN to that brother!

I guess that the Arizona trip showed that you are a good team that got up at home for your rival, but could not sustain it on the road.

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