State Colleges Report: UW volleyball team to take game global

After winning an NCAA championship last December in San Antonio, the Washington volleyball team's next destination is China, and the team is inviting fans to tag along on its 12-day tour that runs June 12-23.

The Huskies, who completed a six-match sweep of NCAA tournament foes last year by defeating top-ranked Nebraska 3-0 in the title match, will play two matches each in Beijing and Shanghai.

The tour also includes sightseeing trips to the Great Wall, the Forbidden City and the Temple of Heaven, where the Olympic Flame will burn during the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing.

"In addition to seeing two incredible cities, fans will see what goes on behind the scenes as we practice and prepare for our matches," said coach Jim McLaughlin, the NCAA's 2004 Coach of the Year. "It will be a unique opportunity to learn everything that is involved in getting the team ready for a match."

The tour's organizer is TranSports Athletic Team Tours of Savannah, Ga., owned by 1968 UW graduate Dale Brannan.

Brannan says if the tour attracts more than 100 participants, he plans to donate any profits to the Washington volleyball program.

"It's just my gift back to the school," said Brannan, who is paying for the team's 20-person traveling group. "I love my alma mater."

Brannan says he has close to 70 seats remaining. With airfare and double-occupancy lodging, the fare is $3,290. Details are available at www.gotransports.com or by calling 877-754-8726.

Washington's roster will include All-Americans Courtney Thompson (senior setter) and Christal Morrison (junior outside hitter). One graduated senior, middle blocker Darla Myhre, will also make the trip.

On June 17 and 18 in Beijing, Washington will play teams that battled for the Chinese university championship last year, Beijing Astronomic and runner-up Beijing Northern Jiaotong University. The June 18 match will be televised nationally in China.

In Shanghai, UW will face Shanghai No. 1, the national under-19 team that feeds China's National Team, and Shanghai Youth. The matches will be played at the national training facility.

"We'll be competing against some tremendous teams," said McLaughlin, on the mend from February hip surgery to repair a muscle and remove a bone cyst.

Other UW sports

Baseball: Zach Clem (Burlington-Edison) needs four home runs to surpass the UW season record of 22 and two to break the career mark of 40. He leads the Pac-10 and is second in the nation in homers. The Huskies (28-15 overall, 6-6 Pac-10), who enter the second half of the conference schedule this weekend at home against Arizona (17-20, 5-7), have nine of their 12 remaining Pac-10 games at home.

Men's soccer: Coming off a 1-0 win over the Seattle Sounders last week, the Huskies wrap their spring schedule by hosting Portland at noon Saturday at Husky Soccer Field.

Tennis: Sophomore Tara Simpson (Vancouver, B.C.) ended the dual season winning four of her last five matches. ... The No. 20 UW men (18-5) missed a chance to share of their second straight Pac-10 title by losing 4-3 to No. 23 California on Wednesday.

Seattle Pacific

Rowing: With the pairs victory of Megan Sweeney (Wilsonville, Ore.) and Alicia Apple (Sequim), SPU's women have won at least one Northwest Collegiate Rowing Championships varsity event for 10 consecutive years. The women's eight and men's four go to Lake Natoma, near Sacramento, Calif., this weekend for the WIRA Championships.

Track and field: In two seasons, Lauren Ver Mulm (Mount Vernon) has seven career javelin wins, three seconds and has never placed lower than seventh in 14 meets.

Seattle U.

Softball: Senior Marjalena Santos (Brea, Calif.), the Great Northwest Conference Player of the Week, had three hits Sunday in a sweep of Central Washington to break the Redhawks' season-hits record. She has 57, breaking the mark of 54 set last season by teammate Jane Purdy (Missoula, Mont.) and is on pace to collect 70 for the Redhawks (28-16, 13-4 GNAC).

Track and field: Junior Robert Renninger (Bellevue) broke the school record for 5,000 meters by more than two seconds last weekend at the Oregon Invitational in 14:54.95.

Washington St.

Baseball: Sophomore Jim Murphy (Juanita of Kirkland) has hit safely in 19 of WSU's last 23 games, batting .346 in that span.

Track and field: The 95th Washington State-Washington men's meet and 31st women's meet is 11 a.m. Saturday at Pullman's Mooberry Track. The WSU men lead the dual series 60-33-1, but the Huskies won last year. The UW women lead 19-11, but WSU has won eight of the past nine.

Western Washington

Golf: Western is seeded among the top two in both the men's and women's NCAA II West Regionals.

Softball: Ashley Barber (Camas) has a .423 average, within reach of the school record of .431 set in 1998. Her on-base percentage of .474 is on pace for the school record.

Other colleges

Puget Sound: Freshman Kaitie Sabol (Salt Lake City) earned Northwest Conference softball player-of-the-week honors after hitting three home runs, including two walk-off blasts, in weekend wins. She has nine homers, a UPS season record.

Saint Martin's: The men's golf team is the No. 5 seed at the West Regional next week in Phoenix.

Eastern Washington: Former quarterback Erik Meyer (La Mirada, Calif.) is expected to be drafted by the NFL on Sunday, one day after his former team's football scrimmage at 11 a.m. in Cheney. Meyer led the Eagles to back-to-back Big Sky Conference titles.

Pacific Lutheran: The men's tennis team has won the NWC title for the 27th time in the conference's 37-year history of the sport. PLU's Craig Hamilton was the coach of the year for the second time.

Whitman: Steven Ly (Gresham, Ore.) is the 2006 NWC Player of the Year in men's tennis, and made the all-NWC first team for the third consecutive year. Whitman's Heidi Tate was NWC Women's Coach of the Year, and Katie Collier (Issaquah) was Sportswoman of the Year.

Elsewhere: Freshman goalkeeper Erin Coltrera (Lakeside of Seattle) has a 5.10 goals-against average and a .500 save percentage for Washington and Lee women's lacrosse.

Sports-information directors

contributed to this notebook.