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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Huskies Expecting To See Hobbled Oigman On Floor For WSU

The University of Washington is expecting to see Cougars middle blocker Keren Oigman Friday night when the two volleyball teams meet in Pullman.

But the Huskies might only spot her in the back row.

Oigman, who leads the team and is seventh in the Pacific-10 Conference with a .369 hitting percentage, is not 100 percent. She sprained her left ankle in practice Oct. 29 and was summoned only to the back row last weekend in the Cougs’ 3-2 loss at Arizona and 3-1 win at Arizona State.

WSU coach Cindy Fredrick said Tuesday that Oigman still is not back.

But UW coach Bill Neville said he expects his players will have to deal with the 5-foot-10 Israeli.

“I think Oigman has been if not the key player, one of the key players,” said 13th-year coach Neville. “She has one of the best playing demeanors that I’ve seen over the last few years.”

The Cougars (17-1, 5-1 Pac-10) enter Friday’s 7 p.m. game ranked No. 8 nationally, down two spots after losing to the Wildcats. Washington (9-6, 4-2) resurfaced at No. 24. Its conference losses were to USC and Arizona State, and four of its six non-conference losses were to ranked teams. Last year, the Washington schools split, both winning at home.

The Huskies lead the series 35-14 but a win by the Cougars would be their 23rd straight at home.

Blocking should be showcased Friday. WSU’s 6-1 junior Jennifer Stinson leads the conference with 1.83 blocks per game. UW’s 6-2 senior Makare Desilets is second (1.81) and 6-2 junior Leslie Tuiasosopo (1.60) third.

Fredrick said she’s planning on matching Stinson against Desilets and 6-6 freshman Colleen Smith against Tuiasosopo. Smith played well in place of Oigman in Arizona. Saturday at ASU, she led the team in hitting, .471 with 11 kills.

Eagles playing lights-out ball

Here’s another sign that Eastern Washington has its act together.

On last weekend’s road trip to Cal State Northridge, the Eagles were locked out of their practice facility, informed of a possible stalker, and forced to finish their match against the Madators in a juco gym.

And through it all, EWU improved to 6-0 in Big Sky Conference matches with a 15-7, 15-4, 14-16, 15-12 win over the defending conference champions.

Eastern (12-2 overall) arrived in Los Angeles Friday after a Thursday night win over Northern Arizona in Flagstaff. When the Eagles went to practice, the Northridge gym was closed.

After the gym was opened, Eastern coach Pamela Parks explained “That’s when the SID told me, ‘You may see some extra policemen Friday night. One of our players is having a stalking problem by an ex-boyfriend.’

“A lot of different things went through my head. Should we play this match? Am I jeopardizing my team?”

Parks called the Big Sky Conference to voice her concerns and said she told them, “If anything happens out of the ordinary, I’m pulling the team off the court.”’

And she did just that. But not because of a stalker. After the Eagles won the first game in about 20 minutes, the lights went out in the 3,000-seat Matadome. At first, everyone thought the power outage was caused by a fire on campus and that there was no chance to restore electricity soon.

So off the two teams went to nearby Pierce Junior College. At 10:30 p.m. - 2-1/2 hours after the start - Eastern beat CSN for the second time this season, the other coming at a tournament in Las Vegas.

“It think it’s incredibly positive to be on the road and have all this extenuating things that could play on your mind. They were lighthearted about it. They were confident that they could get through just about anything, and did,” Parks said.

Spikes and digs

Whitworth College (3-10, 1-6 NCIC) will have its toughest test of the season tonight at 7 when it plays NAIA third-ranked Lewis-Clark State (18-1). The match is being played in St. Maries, Idaho, because both teams have players from that town. Whitworth’s is Katie Jo Borgmann, a junior middle hitter. L-C’s player is Liana Croft … This week’s AVCA national player of the week Sarah Noriega will be in Spokane on Oct. 18 when Gonzaga hosts No. 17 Loyola Marymount. … The University of Idaho home match against No. 9 ranked UC Santa Barbara has been changed from Oct. 24 to Oct. 23. Also, the Vandals’ Oct. 25 home match against Cal Poly SLO has been moved to 8:30 p.m.

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