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OSU greets top five squads

After losing to the No. 6 and No. 8 teams Beavers welcome No. 4 and No. 5 to Corvallis

Casey Grogan

Issue date: 10/2/08 Section: Sports
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Sophomore outside hitter Jill Sawatzky is second on the Beaver volleyball team with 152 kills behind junior Rachel Rourke's 190.
Media Credit: Curtis Barnard
Sophomore outside hitter Jill Sawatzky is second on the Beaver volleyball team with 152 kills behind junior Rachel Rourke's 190.
The Oregon State volleyball team faced a tough weekend last week as both No. 6 Stanford and No. 8 Cal swept OSU 3-0. In the Pac-10, however, every week is tough when the Beavers welcome No. 4 USC and No. 5 UCLA to Corvallis this weekend.

First up for OSU (11-4, 0-2 Pac-10) is No. 4 USC (8-2, 1-0). The Women of Troy have won 22 straight matches over the Beavers and are fresh off of a five-set victory over cross-town rivals UCLA. Southern California has not lost a match this season since their first two of the year against No. 3 Texas and No. 2 Nebraska.

The Women of Troy are led by freshman outside hitter Alex Jupiter and her 133 kills. Teaming up on the outside with Jupiter is redshirt junior Jessica Gysin, who has tallied 104 kills on the year. Setting things up for the USC hitters is junior Taylor Carico, who leads the team with 358 assists.

"They have a great freshman outside in Jupiter and they go to her a lot," head coach Taras Liskevych said. "They are an experienced team that is going to be a handful."

On the defensive side of things, junior libero Alli Hillgren and her 147 digs have helped the Women of Troy against opposing teams' hitters. Redshirt freshman Lauren Williams and sophomore Zoe Garrett have teamed up for 67 total blocks as the USC middle blockers.

Saturday night, the Gill Coliseum will be home for the Beaver match-up with UCLA (10-2, 0-1). The Bruins are will be in Corvallis fresh off a match against No. 11 Oregon in Eugene. Outside hitters sophomore Dicey McGraw and freshman Amanda Gil lead the Bruins in kills, having set down 128 and 115 of their attacks, respectively. Senior setter Nellie Spicer is one of the top setters in the Pac-10 and has 406 assists entering the UCLA road trip to the state of Oregon.

"UCLA is a very good ball control team and might be the best ball control team in the Pac-10," Liskevych said. "They have a great setter in Nellie Spicer, who I think is one of the top two setters in the league. It is going to be interesting."
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