When the injury bug bites, it bites hard.
The University of Washington volleyball team has a lot to play for in the final month of the regular season. With just nine matches left, the No. 19-ranked Huskies sit in third place in the Pac-12 standings behind No. 8 Stanford and No. 24 USC, with several tough matches still ahead.
In the coming week, UW has a Sunday home match against Stanford, a road match against No. 18 Oregon next Friday and another against USC coming up next month. It’s a critical stretch for the Huskies, who are going to have to do most of it while missing two of their best players.
During practice Thursday, sophomore outside hitter Emoni Bush went down with an ankle injury, causing her to miss UW’s 27-25, 25-22, 25-19 sweep against California on Friday at Alaska Airlines Arena.
UW coach Keegan Cook estimates that Bush will be out two to four weeks, meaning she could possibly return in time for the postseason in early December. Bush’s ankle injury comes nearly a month after the Huskies lost sophomore Madi Endsley to an ankle injury that required season-ending surgery. With both of those players out, the Huskies are now missing two of their top four scorers for the regular-season stretch run.
Despite its recent adversity, Cook believes his team will be ready for the tough competition it will face in the coming weeks.
“It’s a time of the year when I think a lot of teams are being tested, and it’s a time of year that we usually get excited for because we usually make the most progress,” Cook said. “Injuries were more than average this year I’d say, but I don’t sense any panic and I don’t sense any feeling sorry for ourselves. Players are engaged and ready to do some good work here over the last six weeks.”
Before she went down, Bush ranked second on the team behind senior Claire Hoffman in total scoring with 240.5 points, and was emerging as what Cook called one of the team’s “main offensive weapons.” Endsley, meanwhile, still ranks fourth on the team in scoring despite missing the past eight matches.
Bush’s replacement in the front row will be fifth-year senior outside hitter Shannon Crenshaw, while redshirt freshman Audra Wilmes has taken over Endsley’s spot. Crenshaw was injured earlier this year, too, sitting out several games with a broken pinky finger.
Not only have the Huskies suffered injury after injury, it’s all happened at just the outside hitter position.
“I think every team faces adversity at some point,” Hoffman said. “Anytime something comes up with our team, our focus has been ‘OK, we have a bench and we have depth.’ I think everyone is ready to step into a new position and step into a new role. Just like, take every day to get better in a lot of different spaces, which is not easy, but I think we’re working hard to do that.”
Hoffman led the team with 16 kills on Friday against the Golden Bears, while Wilmes had 10, Marin Grote had eight and Crenshaw finished with six.
Crenshaw has mainly played in the back row since her return, but will now step into an important role in Bush’s absence. Rather than just play defense, she’ll be expected to make an impact as a hitter, too, something she hasn’t done much of in practice since her injury.
No matter what role the team asks her to fill, Crenshaw will be ready.
“I think it’s always looking at it through a lens of ‘how do I figure this out?’” Crenshaw said. “How do I do it quickly, how do I adapt, and how do I change? As athletes and as volleyball players, we go through that a lot because it’s a fast-paced game, things change and they happen quickly. It’s kind of just part of the game, and it’s definitely an area where there’s a lot of growth that happens. It kind of forces that on a player, but I think it’s just a part of the game, you know. Adapt and change.”
Third place is not somewhere the two-time defending Pac-12 champion Huskies are used to being at this point in the season, as a 3-2 loss to Arizona State on Oct. 21 put the team two games back of Stanford in the conference standings.
With the Pac-12 race now largely out of their control, Cook has felt the pressure lift from his team. Now the focus is back where Cook wants it to be — not on the standings, but on the volleyball court.
“It’s a little bit freeing to some degree,” Cook said. “It wasn’t that difficult. It was difficult the night we lost to Arizona State, and was very difficult for everyone in the program, but we said if that’s what it takes for us to become as good as we can possibly be in December, then we will pay that price every time. That’s the way we’ve chosen to frame it, and that’s how we are going to handle it if we’re in the race or not as we come down the stretch of these (nine) matches.”
With their win over Cal on Friday the Huskies improved to 16-5 on the season, and 8-3 in conference play.