Volleyball gears up for final matches of season

The Beaver volleyball team (8-22 overall, 1-15 Pac-10) has been unable to get out of their losing streak, and this weekend offers them one last chance to end the season with some wins. Oregon State's sole volleyball Pac-10 win came early in the season against the Washington State Cougars (6-19 overall, 0-15 Pac-10), and the team is looking for another win against the crimson and grey Friday.


"On Washington State, (Meagan) Ganzer has had a really good year," said head coach Taras Liskevych. "University of Washington, they are led by their setter Jenna Hagglund who's an All-American, and also (Kindra) Carlson. The Huskies are really tough at home, as is Washington State."


After Friday's match the team will immediately get on a bus and travel five hours through the passes to Seattle to take on the No. 13 Washington Huskies (19-8, 8-8 Pac-10) Saturday evening.

"It's a difficult trip because you are playing back-to-back Friday and Saturday and you have a long way between Pullman and Seattle," Liskevych said. "We will fly to Spokane, then bus to Pullman, play Friday night then bus directly to Seattle. It's a tough turn around."

Washington and Washington State most recently played against the Arizona schools. Washington lost in four to the then-No. 22 Wildcats, but beat the Sun Devils in three. The Cougars lost in four to both Arizona and Arizona State.

"The biggest challenge we have is that ever since the beginning of the year in the Pac-10 season, when we really had both Arizona and Arizona State on the ropes and didn't beat them here, we have had a losing skid, and when you lose, it's tough, it really plays on your mind," Liskevych said. "I think that we just need to get out of that and play some good volleyball, which we are capable of, but we have never sustained it. We have played spurts where we looked great and I think the biggest challenge is that we are going to play Washington State first and they are also on a long losing streak, and hey, it's a tough place to play but we have to just maintain an edge to win that match."


Though they will be unable to end the season with a winning record, if the volleyball team plays well consistently set to set and gets a win against the Cougars, they will be able to take comfort in not finishing last in the Pac-10.

"We want to beat Washington State," Liskevych said. "We want to be ninth in the conference as opposed to 10th, and we just want to finish the season on a good note. The frustration has been that we can play good volleyball; we just have never exhibited it in an entire match in the Pac-10. Even when we beat Washington State that second night of the Pac-10 season, it wasn't really good, with everyone playing well. We have not done that. We want to end on a good note, not finish 10th, and really give a good send-off to these seniors who have been so important to our program. "


Both Friday and Saturday's matches are scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. Keep up to date on all the action by checking out GameTracker through osubeavers.com.

Mackenzie Allen, sports writer

sports@dailybarometer.com