WSU Wants To Mute Hostile Band

It figures to be a tough weekend for the Washington State volleyball team, which takes on USC and UCLA in critical road matches.

“It’s pretty unfriendly territory,” said WSU coach Cindy Fredrick. “Most coaches and players agree it’s real tough to play at USC.

“That school has the most obnoxious band on the face of the Earth, and they tend to get obnoxious as fans because they get rather personal.”

The Cougars will be shorthanded this weekend when they travel to Southern California to play USC tonight at 7 and UCLA on Friday night at 7.

Meanwhile, Fredrick is not 100 percent herself.

Sophomore middle blocker Jenny Herndon won’t make the trip due to an ear infection, so freshman Jennifer Stinson will replace her in the starting lineup.

And Wednesday morning, Fredrick was diagnosed with a herniated disc. As of Wednesday morning, however, she planned to make the trip.

“With the exception of Jenny, they’re all in real good health, but I feel miserable,” Fredrick said.

The No. 9 Cougars (20-4 overall, 12-4 Pac-10) are two games up on third-place and No. 10 UCLA (18-7, 10-6) in the conference and three games ahead of fifth-place and No. 15 USC (13-8, 9-7). No. 13 Arizona State (16-7, 10-7) is in fourth place.

With two wins or a split, WSU will maintain sole possession of second place in the Pac-10, but two losses combined with a UCLA win over Washington puts them in a tie for second place and would leapfrog the Bruins past WSU in the national rankings.

Though WSU is a lock for the NCAA tournament, this weekend is significant for the Cougars if they want to get out of District 8 to possibly host an NCAA regional bid.

No. 3 Stanford (23-2, 16-0) will more than likely be the District 8 regional host. District 8 includes the Pac-10, Big Sky Conference, West Coast Conference and independents Cal State-Northridge and Sacramento State.

The NCAA may look at WSU’s strong record and attendance figures and move them to another region and make them a No. 1 seed so they could host a regional bracket in the 48-team tournament.

“I finally came to the realization a week ago that we’re in the NCAA,” Fredrick said. “But at the same time, this weekend is really big. We’re shooting for second place all by ourselves to possibly get moved out of this district.”

WSU beat USC and UCLA on Sept. 15 and 16 at Pullman. It was the Cougars’ first-win ever against UCLA. It was also the first time the Cougars swept the L.A. schools.

For the moment, WSU seems to have battled out of the funk it had been in for the better part of two weeks.

After winning 17 of its first 18 matches, the Cougars then lost three of four. Last weekend against Oregon and Oregon State, WSU looked more like the team that won its first 13 games of the season.

, DataTimes