LOS ANGELES – The Huskies are still hunting for their first top-10 win of the season, but continuing to come extremely close. Today the 16th-ranked Beach Dawgs had their most competitive match, perhaps ever, with defending NCAA Champion and fourth-ranked USC, ultimately falling in a 4-1 match at USC’s Merle Norman Stadium. Washington (4-4) then finished up its stint at the Pac-12 South Invitational by sweeping Oregon.
Three of UW’s four losses have come against top-10 teams, and UW has been right there in all three. But it could not snap USC’s 40-match winning streak today as the Trojans won third sets on courts three and four to help hold off the Husky upset bid.
The match started with the two and four pairs, and UW took the first sets on both. USC answered to force third sets on both. At No. 2, Piper Monk-Heidrich and Kendall Mather earned the first point of the match, taking down White/Shields 21-19, 15-21, 15-13 with a Monk-Heidrich block on match point. But Palmoa Bowman and Mary Sinclair couldn’t turn things back around in the third set and fell, 15-21, 21-19, 15-10, to Bakos/Showalter.
DAWGS ARE ON THE BOARD!!! Piper and Kendall get the win on court 2!
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— Washington Beach Volleyball (@UW_BeachVB) March 5, 2023
In the next batch of matches, Hannah Yerex and Scarlett Dahl fought back to earn a set point in their second set on court five, but they couldn’t quite extend it, falling 21-10, 23-21 against Karl/Walker. Then Natalie Robinson and Chloe Loreen fell for the first time this season at the No. 1 spot, in a tough 21-18, 21-16 match against USC’s top team of Kraft/Maple.
At No. 3, Teagan DeFalco and Shannon Gormally were poised to get a second point for the Dawgs, but USC’s Nourse twins saved three match points in a row to come back and steal the last match, 17-21, 21-18, 16-14.
Washington then traveled to UCLA’s Mapes Beach for the first time this weekend, and got its first sweep of the season over the Ducks.
Yerex and Dahl dominated with a 21-6, 21-12 win at No. 5 over Peterson/McCaskill, and then Robinson and Loreen got right back to their winning ways, 21-12, 21-13, over Oregon’s Brown and Almanza.
DeFalco and Gormally clinched the victory with a 21-19, 21-14 win over Plevin/Rothstein at No. 3. The last two matches went into third sets, but UW won both by matching 15-12 scores, with Monk-Heidrich and Mather winning at No. 2 over Wetton/Tyus,…
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