Huskies sweep into round of 16

FORT COLLINS, Colo. – The third-seeded Washington volleyball team swept Colorado State 30-21, 30-25, 30-18 Saturday evening at Moby Arena in the second round of the NCAA Division I Championship.

With the win, Washington (28-1) advances to its third consecutive round of 16 and will face 14th-seed Purdue on Friday in College Station, Texas.

CSU finished 21-9.

“We played well and took control of the match in game two,” said Huskies coach Jim McLaughlin. “CSU is a good team and we knew it would be a battle. We got into a good rhythm and made good plays, not great plays, but good plays. Game one was a dogfight, then we settled into their tendencies.”

All-Americans Christal Morrison and Sanja Tomasevic led the Huskies’ offense. Morrison had a match-high 19 kills with a .484 hitting percentage, while Tomasevic added 15 kills with a .375 hitting percentage. Senior Brie Hagerty had 10 kills with a .529 clip for the Huskies, and sophomore Alesha Deesing added six kills from the middle with a .545 average.

All-American setter Courtney Thompson piloted the Huskies to a .455 hitting percentage, while picking up 49 assists and eight digs.

All-American libero Candace Lee headlined the defense with 10 digs and Tomasevic added 10 to bring her career total to 1,175 and take over the No. 4 spot on the UW all-time career list.

UW senior Darla Myhre had seven blocks.

The Huskies held statistical advantages in kills (56-34) and digs (46-31), while out-hitting Colorado State .455 to .105.

UW has lost just 10 games all year.

Washington and Purdue will meet for the first time in the postseason. UW leads Purdue 3-1 in the all-time series and won the last meeting in Seattle in 2001, 3-1.