DEAN HARE/Daily Evergreen (Washington State) Wildcat Stephanie Butkus sets a ball against Washington State in last night's match. The Cougars won the match, 3-1.

Wildcats take on Huskies after falling to Washington State

Though their road trip isn't as tough as Lewis and Clark's two centuries ago, the Arizona volleyball team must now turn around and travel across Washington ÷ after losing to Washington State last night ÷ to face the Huskies, winners of ten straight.

Tonight, No. 16 Arizona (6-5, 0-1 Pacific 10 Conference) goes to Seattle, seeking to rebound against the No. 14 Huskies (10-0, 1-0) after falling to Washington State, 3-1 (32-30, 30-27, 25-30, 36-34).

The Cougars' (4-6, 1-0) upset of the Wildcats is their second over a ranked team in six days. Arizona is also the seventh of the last eight top 25 foes to leave the Palouse with a loss.

Sophomore outside hitter Kim Glass led the way for the Wildcats with 23 kills ÷ tying the match high ÷ and 13 digs. Junior libero Kelli Mulvany had a match-high 16 digs and freshman setter Stephanie Butkus added 51 assists.

For Wazzu, senior Zanda Bautre and redshirt freshman Kristen Carlson combined for 42 kills and 25 digs. Sophomore Brenn Larson, the Cougar setter, returned to action and notched 42 assists after missing six matches due to a high ankle sprain.

After dropping its first Pac-10 opener since 1997, Arizona must now travel to Seattle with no time for serving, passing or court adjustments before the match. The Wildcats are flying out of Spokane, about an hour and a half away from Pullman, according to UA head coach Dave Rubio.

"This is the toughest road trip of the year," Rubio said. "It's difficult because we have to get into a plane and fly from one venue to the next. Just the logistics of it make it more difficult."

Pullman is in the southeastern part of the state ÷ near the Washington-Idaho border ÷ and Spokane is about 75 miles north. Seattle is on the northwestern coast. According to www.mapquest.com, the drive from Pullman to Spokane takes an hour and 54 minutes.

Washington set a school record for consecutive wins (ten) after beating Arizona State (5-5, 0-1) last night, but only one of those have come against a ranked team ÷ a three-game victory over Wisconsin in Madison.

The Huskies return four starters from last year's 20-11 team that went to the second round of the NCAA tournament.

Washington's ranking is its best since 1997 when the Huskies finished the

season at No. 11. Before the season, Pac-10 coaches picked UW to finish sixth in the conference.

Husky freshmen setter Courtney Thompson is leading the Pac-10 in assists going into this weekend with 13.61 per game. Arizona's rookie setter Butkus is third in the league with 12.26. Washington junior Sanja Tomasevic leads the Pac-10 with 6.2 kills per game.

"Washington's a good team, very solid team, and they're a little bit different than the kinds of teams we've seen in the non-conference season," Rubio said. "They're very well coached and they're physical, but they have a freshman setter just like we do and they have a few more upperclassmen playing than we do, so they tend to be a little bit steadier than we do at this time, so I think it should be a good match."

The last time the two schools met was last year in Tucson when the Huskies defeated Arizona in three games, snapping a ten-match Wildcat winning streak.