It’s time to start taking them seriously.
No. 9 California took a huge step toward validating itself as a
legitimate Pac-10 title contender with a five-game victory (30-22,
29-31, 28-30, 30-28, 15-9) over No. 4 Stanford Saturday night at
Haas Pavilion.
It was the first time the Bears (16-0, 7-0 Pac-10) defeated
Stanford (13-3, 6-1) since Oct. 1, 1982, snapping a streak of 40
straight losses to the Cardinal.
“This win was absolutely huge for us,” Cal coach
Rich Feller said. “This definitely gives credibility to our
team, and to our program. It is pretty impressive to finally defeat
a team we haven’t beaten since before our players were
born.”
All-American Mia Jerkov led the Bears with 31 kills.
USC 3, ARIZONA 0 ““ No. 1 USC set a pair
of school records Saturday afternoon as the Trojans thrashed
visiting Arizona, 30-15, 30-21, 30-17.
USC (16-0, 7-0) hit a school-record .595 in the match and made
just three hitting errors in the entire match as the squad moved
into a first-place tie with Cal.
Bibiana Candelas led the Trojans with 11 kills in 12 attempts
for an astounding .917 hitting percentage.
WASHINGTON 3, OREGON STATE 1 ““ Brie
Hagerty posted a career-high 20 kills as the No. 13 Huskies topped
the host Beavers Saturday night at Gill Coliseum, 30-19, 23-30,
30-24, 30-27.
Washington (13-4, 4-4) evened its conference record with the
win.
WASHINGTON STATE 3, OREGON 0 ““ Kristin
Carlson tallied 15 kills and Jennifer Todd added 12 as Washington
State defeated Oregon in three games (30-20, 30-26, 30-25) Saturday
at McArthur Court.