Posted on: Friday, November 19, 2004

Huskies fall from volleyball unbeatens

Advertiser Staff and News Services

Top-ranked Washington lost to No. 9 Stanford in a five-game thriller last night in Pacific-10 Conference women's volleyball at Burham Pavilion in Stanford, Calif.

Ogonna Nnamani, a member of the United States Olympic team, hammered a career-high 37 kills to lead the Cardinal to a 28-30, 11-30, 30-27, 34-32, 20-18 win.

The Huskies lost their first match of the season, falling to 22-1 and 14-1 in the Pac-10. The Cardinal improved to 20-6 and 12-3.

The University of Hawai'i (23-0) is now the lone unbeaten team in Division I.

After a tightly-contested first game, Washington looked to be on its way to a sweep, rolling to a 30-11 win in the second game, holding Stanford to negative .094 hitting.

But the Cardinal rallied to win the third and fourth games to force a winner-take-all fifth game.

Washington led by as many as six in the fifth game (10-4) and had six match points. But the Cardinal, behind Nnamani and Kristin Richards, who finished with 10 kills, rallied to take a 19-18 lead. Jennifer Hucke's ace on match point completed the comeback.

Leahi Hall, a 2000 graduate of King Kekaulike on Maui, had five digs and one ace for Stanford. Her ace came on game point in the third game.