The UW will look to continue its four-game winning streak today at home against rival Washington State.

The Cougars (7-12, 0-8 Pac-10) are undergoing a rebuilding year after hiring new head coach Andrew Palileo. The team hasn’t won a match since its Sept. 19 sweep of Utah Valley. Last weekend marked the first conference set WSU won in eight conference matches.

Despite WSU’s lack of success, the Huskies are taking the challenge seriously.

“We’re excited to play,” junior libero Tamari Miyashiro said. “They’ll be ready. Wazzu always plays their best game against us.”

WSU deserves to be taken seriously, as they have plenty of dangerous players.

Junior Jackie Albright and senior Emily Rooney lead the Cougar offense, averaging 2.58 and 2.38 kills, respectively. WSU’s defense is powered by junior Kelly Hyder, the Cougar all-time dig leader with 1,344 in her career.

The UW has some star players of its own. After putting up an astounding 98 kills last weekend, sophomore setter Jenna Hagglund is only 20 assists shy of seventh place in the UW all-time record books. Miyashiro is also moving up in the Husky record books, only 431 digs shy of the UW digs record.

“I think it would be an accomplishment,” Miyashiro said. “But more importantly we need to get better as a team and improve over the course of the season.”

The Huskies have dominated the Cougars in recent memory, coming out on top the last 10 times the two teams have met. Washington leads the overall series 53-21 with WSU’s last victory coming in a 3-0 sweep in Pullman Nov. 8, 2002. Washington fans will be hoping to add to that victory streak.

“People always get extremely excited to play them,” Miyashiro said. “Sometimes I think that they get more excited than we do.”

Following their match against the Cougars, the UW volleyball team will make its way down to the Bay Area next weekend to face off against Stanford and Cal.

Reach reporter Zach Ruby at sports@dailyuw.com.