Pac-10 teams hit the road

Pac-10 teams hit the road

By Sam Spiller
Arizona Daily Wildcat
September 11, 1996

Arizona Daily Wildcat
Southern Cal, Arizona and many of the other Pacific 10 Conference teams will be in action at tournaments this weekend with the start of conference play just around the corner.

This week in the Pacific 10 Conference, six of the volleyball teams are scheduled to attend tournaments around the nation. No. 7 Washington State (7-0) will attempt to win its third straight tournament when it travels to Chicago to compete at the Mizuno U SA Cup.
No. 12 UCLA (5-2) will travel to the Florida Tournament in Gainesville and No. 15 Southern Cal (2-1) will head to the Santa Clara Tournament in California. Undefeated Oregon State (8-0) will attend the New Balance Invitational in Portland, Ore.
Of the four teams not attending tournaments, the most notable absences are No. 2 Stanford and No. 23 Arizona State. Stanford is playing single matches against San Diego State and UC-Santa Barbara this week.

ASU dropped seven places in the polls after losing to Arkansas 15-7, 15-7, 16-14 in last weekend's George Washington Tournament in Washington, D.C. The Sun Devils will not play again until Sept. 20, when they face California at home in the first conferenc e matchup of the year.

Oregon State's Staci Hintze leads the Pac-10 in hitting percentage with .531 in 24 games. Arizona's Stephanie Venne is ranked ninth with a .374 average. In average kills, Terri Cox has the lead with 6.32 kills per game. Right behind Cox is Arizona's Barb Bell with a 5.05 average. Cox also leads the conference in average digs with 5.21 digs per game. Bell is tied for eighth with 2.82.
In the team categories, Oregon leads three of the seven categories. The Ducks are tops in attacks, blocks and digs. UCLA leads in assists and kills. USC has the highest hitting percentage. Stanford has the most service aces.

The Cardinal showed just how good it is on Friday night by beating an alumnae squad led by two-time Olympian Kim Oden. Junior Debbie Lambert led Stanford with 10 kills and seven digs, while freshman Jaimi Gregory had nine kills and seven digs and senior C atherine Juillard added 24 assists.
Oden, who currently plays on the pro beach tour and played in the 1988 and 1992 Olympics, had eight kills and six digs to lead the alumnae team.