With a successful preseason behind them, No. 6 Stanford women’s volleyball kicks off conference play in Washington this weekend. The Cardinal were picked to win the Pacific-10 Conference title in the preseason coaches’ poll, but the path to that title is rocky.

Enlarge
#gallery http://daily.stanford.org/image/full/6165
Bernard Bluhm

Sophomore Cynthia Barboza, seen here against UC-Santa Barbara earlier this season, is returning to the lineup after a torn ACL ended her 2005 season prematurely.

Six teams from the Pac-10 are ranked in the national polls, with five in the top 10 (No. 3 UCLA, No. 4 Washington, Stanford, No. 7 Southern California and No. 8 California). Here is The Daily’s look at the Card’s opponents from the nation’s strongest conference, in the order that Stanford will face them.

Stanford’s first Pac-10 match of 2006 is scheduled at Washington State (11-2) on Thursday. The Cougars, who finished ninth in the conference last year, have started on a hot streak. They won 11 of their first 13, but are yet to face a Top 25 opponent. The 11 wins are already more than the Cougars managed all of last season.

Awaiting the Cardinal on Friday is defending national champion Washington (9-1). The Huskies won their first ever title (and the fifth in a row for the Pac-10) in 2005. Despite losing five seniors from that team, Washington lost only once in the preseason, falling in five games to No. 5 Texas. Senior setter Courtney Thompson (averaging 14.1 assists per game) leads a young, talented squad out to defend its crown.

Stanford opens its home season against Arizona (9-3), which notched two wins over the Card last year. Without 2005’s star senior Kim Glass, the Wildcats have struggled this year and were dealt a serious blow with the loss of senior Kristina Baum to injury last week. Senior Dominique Lamb has stepped up to lead the Wildcats’ offense with a .404 hitting percentage and its defense with 63 blocks.

Arizona State (8-3) has lost only three matches — two of them five-gamers — this year and swept six opponents in the preseason. The Sun Devils, who managed only three Pac-10 wins in 2005, boast one of the top defenders in the conference in libero Sydney Donahue, niece of Stanford associate head coach Denise Corlett. Donahue’s 50 digs against LMU are the most by any player in the country this year.

Stanford’s cross-bay rivalry with Cal (11-0) has heated up in past years and should stay hot in 2006. The Bears, led by seniors Jillian Davis (4.61 digs per game) and Samantha Carter (12.89 assists per game), have established themselves as national contenders and have won two out of the last three against Stanford in Berkeley. Cal has not lost a match in 2006 and dropped only three games in the preseason.

Southern California (11-0) won back-to-back national championships in 2002 and 2003, but without the twin towers of Emily Adams and Bibiana Candelas (6-foot-6 and 6-foot-5, respectively) the Trojans finished fourth in last year’s Pac-10 race. Like the Bears, USC was undefeated in the preseason with two wins against ranked opponents.

UCLA (13-0) picked up two first-place votes in the conference poll and is the highest-ranked Pac-10 team heading into conference play. Senior middle blocker Nana Meriwether was named conference and national Player of the Week in September after hitting .875 in the Bruins’ victory over No. 5 Florida. Meriwether is hitting .571 on the season with a team-high 166 kills and 58 blocks.

Oregon State (3-6) finished seventh in the conference last year, the best of the unranked Pac-10 teams and upset Cal in the middle of the season. The Beavers started 2006 with a win but then lost six in a row before they closed out the preseason on a two-game win-streak.

Oregon (10-0) will try to rebound from a disappointing 2005 season that saw the Ducks finish the conference season with only one win. With 10 straight preseason victories, Oregon has tied the longest winning streak in school history. Six freshmen have brought a new energy into the squad and led the way to victory over No. 17 Long Beach in August.

Despite a conference as strong from top to bottom as it has ever been, a sixth straight Pac-10 NCAA champion could be just three months away.