They went to the same high school, played on the same club team, were both named top recruits in the nation and now are two of the top volleyball players Washington has ever seen. Seniors Christal Morrison and Stevie Mussie are both about to end their careers here at Washington. However, the paths they took to get to where they are now are actually quite different.

It all started in Puyallup, Wash., a quaint city located at the foot of Mount Rainer about 35 miles south of Seattle. In 2004, Morrison and Mussie were getting ready to finish their high school careers and move on to the wide world of college athletics. With both earning a list of accolades coming out of high school — Morrison was on the U.S. Junior National Team and Mussie was recognized as a Washington Gatorade Player of the Year in 2002 and 2004 — the door of opportunity to college athletics was wide open.

After taking recruiting trips to UCLA, University of Arizona, Pepperdine and USC, Christal Morrison reluctantly took her last visit to Washington.

“I wasn’t really that excited to come,” Morrison said. “But when I came here it felt like home right away.”

With a big smile on her face when her mom came and picked her up, Morrison knew she was going to be a Husky.

Mussie, on the other hand, took a different route to purple and gold. After high school, she decided she wanted to get away from Washington and try something new. Mussie headed down to northern California to attend University of Pacific, which had a great volleyball program and a hallowed legacy. However, despite having success with the Tigers, including being named to the All-Big West Conference Freshman Team, Mussie just wasn’t satisfied with life in Stockton.

“I wanted to become the best player I could be and not just get by with the skills I already had,” Mussie said. “Plus, I missed my family a lot.”

After two years at UOP, Stevie transferred to Washington, ready to start a fresh new season at a fresh new school. Morrison and Mussie were reunited, this time not as Puyallup High Vikings, but as Washington Huskies.

“I was really excited when I found out Stevie was coming to UW,” Morrison said. “We went to junior high and high school together, so why not college.”

Eager to learn new things, Mussie started to practice new movements and drills with the Huskies that she had never done before. As a result of the new training regimen, Mussie developed a micro-fracture that ended her first season as a Husky before it even started. Ironically, Mussie was sidelined in 2005 when the Huskies won the national championship.

While most players would have been devastated with the kind of bad luck Mussie experienced, she actually embraced it.

“It gave me a chance to learn from the great players and try to be as good as them,” Mussie said.

While Mussie’s chance to shine as a Husky was put on hold for a while, Morrison’s was already well under away. As a freshman, she played in 104 games, 30 matches and made 27 starts. She was named to the Pac-10 All-Conference first team and Freshman of the Year for the Pac-10. She was the NCAA Championship’s Most Outstanding Player, named Sports Star of the Year by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and was a major contributing factor when Washington swept Nebraska to claim its first ever NCAA Division I National Title all in her sophomore year.

“It felt so perfect,” Morrison said. “It was down in San Antonio and I had a lot of family down there supporting me. Plus, the girls that year were a great group of girls to play with.”

As a young Husky, Morrison says she really looked up to Courtney Thompson and Sanja Tomasevic.

“Courtney was a great leader of the team and also my best friend,” Morrison said. “And Sanja really helped me out with the game and how to approach practice and drills.”

However, now the tides have turned for Morrison and Mussie, and instead of looking up to others, they are the ones acting as role models.

Both girls try to lead by example in practice and in games, and Mussie admits that she has earned the nickname “mom” from some of her teammates.

The No. 8 Washington volleyball team is well under way with their season, and Morrison and Mussie are already a big part of that. Last week, Mussie was named Pac-10 Player of the Year for her outstanding performance against Oregon and Oregon State.

“I’m not really a big fan [of Pac-10 Player],” Mussie said. “I don’t think one person can be great without their teammates.”

Spoken like a true team player, both Mussie’s and Morrison’s goals for the team this year are clear: Win a national championship.

Morrison and Mussie have spent so much time together throughout their lives, it is no surprise that their plans post-graduation coincide as well. Both girls want to continue playing volleyball, either professionally in Europe or on the beach. Another dream for them would be to represent their country in either the 2008 or 2012 Olympics.

However, as surprisingly close as graduation may seem for most seniors, for Morrison and Mussie the only thing that matters right now is their last season.

“I’ll worry about what I’m going to do after graduation when December comes,” Morrison said.

Mussie agrees.

“Right now the focus is to win another National Championship,” she said. “It would be the icing on the cake to go out on top.”

It is a very realistic goal for a team that already boasts a 13-0 overall record and a 2-0 Pac-10 record. All Mussie and Morrison can do now, however, is keep doing what they’re doing and time will tell the rest.

[Reach reporter Rebecca Rogers at sports@thedaily.washington.edu.]