DIG IT! - UW Volleyball

BY BOB SHERWIN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

It’s difficult to rationalize how the University of Washington’s volleyball team, with all but one player back from last season’s 20-4 Final Four team, can lose two consecutive late September games this season to Utah and rival Washington State.

Seventh-year Head Coach Keegan Cook offers no excuses for the losses, and, in fact, is not surprised. As he says, “adversity arrives for every team. It arrived for us a little early in the season. I tell the players it’s not a matter of if but when.”

As a veteran coach, Cook has seen the ebbs and flows of college campaigns. In his six seasons as the Huskies head coach, his teams have won three Pac-12 titles, made four trips to the Elite Eight, and last April he guided the Huskies to his first Final Four experience (fifth time in school history). Entering the season, the Huskies were 152-40 under Cook.

He has a variety of experiences but needs to remind himself that his players have not. Each season is different. Every team changes, with different mindsets, motivations, and chemistry. He said that for his players to recover from the back-to-back losses, it’s not so much dwelling on why they happened but how they learn and grow from them. “I do not expect our team to be fully formed one-third through the season, but we do expect them to be working diligently to resolve the issues we’ve become aware of,” Cook said. “We’ve always done the work. We’ve always had a December mindset here. That’s been our mindset the past two years. It has served us pretty well.”

December is when the NCAA Volleyball Championship will be held – Dec. 16-18 at Columbus (Ohio) Nationwide Arena. That’s the focus, figuring out how this team can get to the Final Four again. They came close to winning their second NCAA crown (matching 2005) in the COVID-adjusted tournament last April, losing to eventual champion Kentucky in the semifinals. The previous season, the Huskies advanced to the Elite Eight then watched Stanford defeat Wisconsin for the national title. The Huskies had beaten both teams earlier that season. “It’s whole new year, it’s a new team and you have to live in the now,” Cook said. “Nostalgia can be a little bit dangerous. You have to be really present.”

Having said that, this team, ranked 13th in the country entering October, does possess a significant amount of carryover. It has a seasoned core, players who have been together for four or even five years. If the Huskies are to have a December to remember those veteran players need to be the catalysts, especially their three All-Americans, first team setter Ella May Powell (junior, Arkansas), first team outside hitter Samantha Drechsel (senior, Woodinville), and second team outside hitter Claire Hoffman (junior, Oregon).

Cook said that from what he has seen from Powell “is a real urgency to improve on her checklist. She’s not coasting here at the end of her career. The intensity to learn, the intensity to get things in place are as high as they have ever been.”

He said that Drechsel, “is going to come on and really be a force for us.” Hoffman has been hampered by health issues but Cook said, “she’s not a player I would count out.”

Cook said that junior middle blocker Marin Grote (Burbank, Calif.) “has been the breakout performer of the season thus far. She made her presence known in the NCAA Tournament last year and it was a big reason for our run. She has picked up where she left off and established herself as a main threat on our team.”

Freshman libero Lauren Bays (Orange County, Calif.) and freshman outside hitter Canadian Emoni Bush “also have added a unique layer to this team,” Cook said. “The main goal now is to grow and deepen their connections to each other.”

An indication how this team responds might be a reflection on how it came back from another early-season loss back in August. The Huskies scheduled then 11th ranked Ohio State on Aug. 28 with the idea of starting and finishing the season in the same Final Four arena in Columbus. The Huskies, who won the first set, lost three sets in a row to the Buckeyes for a tough 3-1 loss.

It was a disappointing result, but the Husky women were undaunted. They pulled together and won the next six consecutive matches, four on the road. Only one match went five sets.

UW’s five-set victory over Montana State on Sept. 16 was the team’s most resilient of all. MSU won the first set, 28-26, then UW won, 25-17, lost 2225 and won 25-11 to tie it at 2-2. The Huskies started the fifth set by losing the first five points. MSU was five points from victory, leading 10-5, when the Huskies clutched up. They won 11 of the next 15 points for an emotional 16-14 comeback victory.

Then came the letdowns, a five-set home loss to Utah and the five-set setback to Wazzu in Pullman. Entering their match against Utah, the Huskies had a career 16-5 record against the Utes, including a three-match win streak. Curiously, the Cougars extended their victory streak to four straight over the Huskies — after UW had won 30 of the previous 32 matches.

What bothered Cook as much as anything from the two losses was that the Huskies couldn’t finish effectively in the fifth set, losing 16-14 to Utah and 15-11 to WSU. During the NCAA Tournament last season, the Huskies had won three straight five-set matches, 15-11 (in the fifth set) to Dayton, 15-13 to Louisville, and 15-9 to Pittsburgh, after being down 0-2. It’s the first time ever that a Final Four team won three straight five-setters. “That’s what we’ve been known for in years past,” Cook added.

It demonstrates, as he points out, that the Huskies, for all their success, are targets. They take the best shot from all their opponents, up and down the conference and the West Coast. “I think the Pac-12 is highly motivated right now,” Cook said. “When they (opponents) see one of their competitors make it to the Final Four, it creates a belief and a motivation for them.”

The Pac-12 has the reputation as the strongest in the country. Since 1981, the conference has won 17 of 40 volleyball national championships, from four different schools: Stanford (9), UCLA (4), USC (3) and Washington (1). “The margin of failure and success is really thin,” Cook said. “It’s (parity) the deepest it has ever been in the conference.”

In addition, West Coast teams, perennially the majority of Husky non-conference opponents, have combined to win 25 volleyball titles. The West is a grind, intensified this season for the Huskies, who begin 0-2 in conference play.

Cook said he expects this team to show its character and work out their problems. “I have complete confidence in how we are going to be in December,” he said. That confidence is based on his belief in the experience and moxie of his players. “This is the oldest team I will have ever coached,” he added. “I just hope the community understands how much this group has given and how much they’re still giving to the university and the community. It’s special to have this many experienced athletes on one team.”