Pac-10 tough against outsiders

Pac-10 tough against outsiders

By Sam Spiller
Arizona Daily Wildcat
September 18, 1996

Arizona Daily Wildcat
Oregon State's women's volleyball team is still undefeated after a 10-0 run through its nonconference schedule.

No. 2 Stanford (6-0) and Oregon State (10-0) remain undefeated as the Pacific 10 Conference teams end their nonconference tournament schedule.
Pac-10 teams have dominated nonconference opponents this season. They have a combined record of 66-15 and have earned 11 tournament crowns.
Some of the notable schools that have been beaten by Pac-10 teams are No. 15 UC-Santa Barbara, No. 12 Notre Dame, No. 23 San Diego State, No. 19 Pacific, No. 9 Michigan State and No. 3 Texas. No. 1 Hawaii has sustained attacks by UCLA and California to remain undefeated.

Arizona (9-1) broke into USA Today's top 25 at No. 25 this week. Washington moved to No. 24. Stanford leads the Pac-10 and remains steady at the No. 2 spot while Southern Cal moved up from No. 13 to No. 11. UCLA dropped four spots to No. 14 and Washington State held at No. 6. Despite a 10-0 record, Oregon State has not broken into the rankings.

Washington's Angela Bransom became the Pac-10 player of the week for her play in the Jones Intercable Invitational in Albuquerque, N.M.
Bransom was named MVP in the tournament after wins over New Mexico, Montana and Pacific. The senior swing hitter collected 64 kills, 45 digs and 12 blocks. Against Pacific, Bransom tallied 27 kills, 17 digs and five blocks.
This is Bransom's fourth career player of the week honor and the eighth all-time for Washington.
Other nominees for player of the week were Arizona's Barb Bell, OSU's Staci Hintze, Stanford's Kristen Folkl, UCLA's Elisabeth Bachman, USC's Janice Mounts and Washington State's Stephanie Papke.

After defeating San Diego State and UC-Santa Barbara, Stanford upped its home record to 50-2 since 1992, and is currently sporting a 35-match home win streak.
In the match against UCSB, the Cardinal was led by freshman Kerri Walsh from Saratoga, Calif. Walsh had 19 kills in the 3-1 victory Thursday night at Maples Pavilion. She had just come back from a foot sprain that kept her out of the match against SDSU.
In the first game, Stanford ran off the last 10 points of the game to win 15-3. In game two it took a commanding 9-0 lead, and polished the Gauchos off 15-4. In game three UCSB came back to win 7-15, but the Cardinal put the Gauchos away in game four, 15-7.
To beat the Gauchos, Stanford had to hold off freshman Roberta Gehlke, who had 23 kills and 14 digs in the match. Stanford's Folkl had 19 kills and junior Lisa Sharpley added 65 assists.

Washington State's Sarah Silvernail needs 66 kills to reach second on the Cougars' career kills chart behind Carrie Couturier, who has 1,598.