By Arlie Rahn
Arizona Daily Wildcat
The 17th-ranked Arizona women's volleyball team (10-8 overall, 5-7 in Pac-10) will face the two Washington schools this weekend at McKale. And although No. 23 Washington State is the only ranked team of the two, Washington is the hot one.
The unranked Huskies came out Friday night against No. 11 Southern Cal and played well but suffered a heartbreaking, five-game loss.
After this tough loss, Husky coach Bill Neville took his team aside and told them they could not go out and expect the tough Pacific 10 Conference schools to hand them the game. Instead he said they had to be on the offensive and take the game from them.
His inspirational talk appeared to be effective, as the Huskies came out against No. 3 UCLA and won game one. They did, however, lose game two and three.
"We came out in the first game and won a very well-played game one," said Neville of the early part of his team's match against the Bruins. "But then we got killed in the second match, losing 15-3. They frustrated us and we knew as we went into the locker room that we had to make an adjustment. We came out in the third game and showed some improvement even though we lost."
But when faced with adversity, the Huskies rose to the occasion and won two straight games, winning the match in five.
Said UA coach David Rubio: "The Huskies are playing very well right now. They are a very good team and we will have to continue to execute on our side of the court."