Road Warriors in Washington

The Cardinal is playing in Washington this weekend — against Washington State tonight and Washington on Sunday. Do you think they'll be wearing their Road Warrior black uniforms?

Nate Adams (The Stanford Daily) writes that it will be especially important for the Cardinal to step up its road play this weekend, as any loss could make it very difficult for the Stanford women to catch up to conference-leading California before the end of the season. Kayla said, “These games are very important, there’s no question. If we lose, we may be out of the competition for the Pac-10 title. Both teams have been playing better basketball and have the home advantage going, so we need be tough.”
Tara said, “We’re working on a lot of things this week that we want to work on against Cal. Our bench should see some more time too. We’re always trying to do that. We have a good core with our starting lineup, but we want to get more playing time for our young players. We’re a young team and we need to get them experience.” Read more...

This is what the Washington media is saying about the upcoming games.

Washington State Cougars

Since their 102-53 loss to Stanford five weeks ago, the Washington State Cougars have defeated Oregon State and Arizona (both at home) and lost to Oregon, UCLA, USC and Arizona State.

Nicholas K Geranios (Seattle P-I) writes about the Cougars' never having won a game against Stanford. But history doesn't interest coach June Daugherty, who is in her second year trying to rebuild the WSU program. And Tara does not downplay the game. "The second time around everyone has a better sense of who they are playing against and what they want to do," she said. Read more...

Braulio Perez (The Daily Evergreen) reports that the Cougars know what they have to do to upset the Cardinal or the Bears — take care of the basketball ... do a better job in transition ... keep pace the entire game ... play really solid defense. Certainly a recipe for success — Perez draws no conclusion as to the outcome. Read more...

Washington Huskies

Since their shocking 112-35 loss to Stanford five weeks ago, the Washington Huskies have lost to Cal, Oregon, Oregon State, USC, UCLA, Arizona and Arizona State.

John Boyle (Everett Herald) writes about the UW women hoping for a better second half of Pac-10 play. One reason for renewed confidence is that all the Huskies are healthy — in particular, outstanding freshman guard Kristi Kingma, who has scored an average of 16 points in the last four games. Kingma's return has helped to free up the Huskies' other shooters — like their leading scorer Sami Whitcomb, who has averaged 19.8 points in those games. They also find a glimmer of hope by looking back to last season and remembering that they pulled off an upset that cost Cal a share of the conference title. Read more...

Dick Rockne (Seattle P-I) reports that the Huskies women are playing with confidence after eight straight losses, apparently as the result of Tia Jackson's work-in-progress coaching methods with players who have taken to a new level the idea that losing builds character. Read more...

Jayda Evans (Seattle Times) discusses how frustrating it is to keep losing in spite of working hard to win and what the Huskies are trying to do about that. Co-captain Michelle Augustavo said, "There are a lot of people that doubt us and don't think we can flip it around. It's really important to come together and believe in ourselves." Read more...