University of Minnesota Athletics
Western Michigan/Washington Notes
12/2/2011 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Dec. 2, 2011
WASHINGTON
Washington improves in the 2011 season to 24-7, 15-7 (T-4th) in the Pacific-12 Conference. It is the 10th consecutive season (all under current head coach Jim McLaughlin) that the Huskies have advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Washington is now 14-2 in first round matches and 33-14 all-time in NCAA matches.
The Huskies become the first Pac-12 team to advance to the second round of this year's NCAA tournament. California and Oregon were eliminated last night; Arizona was eliminated earlier tonight. Stanford, UCLA and USC will play later.
This was Washington's first NCAA match outside of Seattle since 2009. The Huskies lost in the second round of the 2009 tourney at Colorado State (12/4/09). The previous night, Washington defeated Northern Colorado, its last NCAA win outside of Seattle before tonight. The Huskies are 14-10 in NCAA matches not played in Seattle (12-5 under McLaughlin), including all six wins en route to Washington's 2005 NCAA championship.
Krista Vansant led the Huskies with 25 kills in the match. It matched her season & career high set in Washington's last match, a five-set win at Washington State last Friday. Vansant leads the Huskies with 376 kills this season.
Washington hit .362 as a team during the match...the Huskies are 17-0 this season when hitting .250 or above as a team.
WESTERN MICHIGAN
Western Michigan finishes the 2011 season with a 24-9 record, 12-4 (T-2nd) in the West Division of the Mid-American Conference. The Broncos have won 20+ matches in all seven season under head coach Colleen Munson.
It was Western Michigan's 11th appearance in the NCAA Tournament. The Broncos fall to 7-11 all-time in NCAA matches. It was the 2nd appearance under Munson, and the Broncos are 2-2 in NCAA matches under Munson.
Tonight's match was the Broncos' 2nd match ever against a Pac-12 school. WMU lost to UCLA, 3-0, in 1983.
The Broncos lose only one senior (Ashley Turnage) off the 2011 roster.
Sophomore libero Lena Oliver led the Broncos with 27 digs in the match...she finishes the season with exactly 700 digs, tying Catlin Strimel (2006) for the WMU single-season record in digs.