Huskies begin title hunt in Colorado

When playoff brackets were announced on Sunday and the Washington women's volleyball team found out that it would be hitting the road for the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament, it left a lot of people wondering what happened.

Before the official seeds came out, everyone thought the UW would be hosting the first two rounds at Hec Edmundson Pavilion like last season.

So why not?

They did win the Pac-10 -- arguably the best conference in the nation with six teams making the tournament field -- they did finish the season at 26-1 and they were the No. 3 seed in the entire event.

No. 1 Nebraska at 28-1, No. 2 Penn State at 29-2 and No. 5 Stanford at 25-5, whom the Huskies beat twice during the season, all play at home to start the playoffs.

It just seemed to make sense they would be rewarded for their results by receiving two home games to start the tournament.

"Last year, we got to host [four games] and it was a great experience, but I believe that the NCAA [selection] committee has a tough job, and I know that they can't make everyone happy," senior Sanja Tomasevic said. "They're just not going to make us happy this year, so we're going to have to make ourselves happy on our own."

The same logic that allowed the UW to host two rounds of the playoffs last year is the reason that the Huskies find themselves playing in Fort Collins, Colo. for the first and second rounds this season.

Unlike basketball, where teams actually make profit, volleyball is a non-revenue sport and the NCAA tries to cut costs as much as it can for each team.

To do this, it picks the 64-team field and then tries to choose host sites that can accommodate two teams within a 300-mile radius of each other. In this case, it was Colorado and Colorado State, just like it was Idaho coming to Seattle last season.

"After the selection show, there were some emotions as there should be," coach Jim McLaughlin said. "And as I watched them, most of the emotions came from them not being able to play in front of their fans."

McLaughlin, though, stressed that it doesn't matter where or who the team plays, that they have to focus on themselves if they want to achieve their main goal of winning the national title.

"We are really capable of playing at a high level and I think we're capable of winning this thing," he said. "Our focus needs to be on the University of Washington, improving ourselves, and preparation for this weekend second."

Once the team gets to the tournament, the preparation for this weekend will involve looking at its upcoming opponents.

On Friday night, the Huskies will face Siena (20-11) in the first round. Given that they beat Siena, Washington will face the winner of the Colorado (15-12) and Colorado State (20-8) match-up on Saturday night.

"It's finally tournament time and we're excited," junior Courtney Thompson said. "It would have been neat to play in front of the home crowd, but other than that I could care less where we play."

One thing about playing in Colorado that concerns McLaughlin is playing at a higher altitude.

"Maybe the ball is going to carry a foot longer, so we put some tape down in the gym inside a foot," he said. "We'll have some days, we'll be acclimated, and I will take all precautions in mind and make sure."

Tomasevic, on the other hand, doesn't think that it's anything to worry about.

"I don't think we will be gasping for air," she said. "People have made such a big deal about it, but we'll deal with it like we have with everything else this year."

Besides the announcement of the NCAA bracket, there was other news for the Huskies early this week with the announcement of the Pac-10 awards on Monday.

Along with six players being named to the All-Pac-10 team --including a program high five on the first team --Tomasevic was named the 2005 Pac-10 Player of the Year.

"It's been a great year as far as everything goes," she said. "But when you win the Pac-10 like we did this year, then you wouldn't expect anything less than for someone from our team to get Pac-10 Player of the Year."

McLaughlin has also grabbed an honor of his own. He has made winning the Pac-10 Coach of the Year almost a yearly routine. This year's award is his third in the past four seasons.

Even though they have had plenty of success this year, with a Pac-10 title and more awards than any team in Washington history, the test begins now.

It's win-or-go-home, and the Huskies don't plan on coming home for the winter without a national championship trophy in tow.

2004 Playoffs

Last season, the Huskies followed up their previous best postseason finish in school history [HTML_REMOVED] an Elite Eight loss to Minnesota in 2003 [HTML_REMOVED] by besting it with a Final Four appearance.

Hosting games in the first four rounds of the NCAA Tournament, Washington didn't have to play a single game away from Hec Edmundson Pavilion before reaching the Final Four.

They swept Idaho in the first round before hitting a surprising bump against Kansas. The two teams battled to five games, but the UW took the fifth game 15-13 on a double-hit error by the Jayhawks.

In the Sweet Sixteen, the Huskies recorded their second sweep of the postseason, defeating Saint Mary's to move one game away from the Final Four.

But UCLA wasn't going to make UW's path to Long Beach an easy one.

Both teams battled hard as the Bruins tried to stave off a third defeat of the season by the UW, but in the end Washington won 3-2, thanks to good defense in the fifth game, holding UCLA to a .000 hitting percentage.

The Huskies' magical season and national title hopes ended in the Final Four when they fell to Stanford for the second time that season.

Playoffs Preview

The tournament field that the Huskies will have to fight through in their quest for the national title is not going to be an easy one.

Along with the UW, the favorites to make an appearance in the Final Four are Penn State, Nebraska, Stanford and Arizona

The Cornhuskers (28-1) have been No. 1 in the nation for the entire season, losing only one match when Texas upset them 3-2 last weekend.

Along with Penn State and Stanford, Nebraska has the luxury of hosting all its own games through the Elite Eight.

Penn State (29-2) moved past the Huskies for the No. 2 spot in the polls after their loss to Arizona earlier this season.

Stanford (25-5) has struggled at times this season with injuries to key players. Of the five matches the Cardinal lost, two were against the Huskies. But with its home-field advantage, Stanford going to be a favorite to reach the Final Four.

Arizona (25-5) will try to stop Stanford.

In what could be the best match-up in the Elite Eight this season, Arizona will head into Palo Alto, Calif. to try and take down the Cardinal.