With the talk of the town focusing on a dismal Husky football season, many fans haven’t recognized the success surrounding the sixth-ranked Husky volleyball team.

Ever since coach Jim McLaughlin brought his magic to the Northwest, UW has became an instant powerhouse and is setting records along the way.

The team has been a perennial contender for the NCAA title the past six seasons. This winning trend seems to be as constant as the rain in Seattle.

“It’s been awesome,” McLaughlin said. “It’s important that we play well for our students, our fans.”

With McLaughlin’s arrival, the team has developed 19 All-Americans, six Academic All-Americans and 25 all-conference players.

The team also finished the 2005 season with a 32-1 record and went undefeated in the post-season­­ 3-0, a NCAA record. The team went on to win the national title that year.

McLaughlin has made disciples out of his players. He has taught them lessons that they have applied on the court and beyond.

McLaughlin said his weekly messages have a consistent theme with subtle variations.

“It’s about improvement, progress, mindset and all the things that make the team compete at a high level,” McLaughlin said.

Among his disciples is setter Jenna Hagglund, who has applied the inspirational coach’s messages to heart.

The sophomore is ranked third in assists per set in the nation and is the first Husky to win American Volleyball Coaches Association Player of the Week in three years after recording 56 and 57 assists against UCLA and USC.

“As a setter, I have to put up a lot of assists,” Hagglund said.

She emphasized teamwork as the core reason of her success, saying that setting encompasses the whole team.

Hagglund, who helped dismantle the WSU volleyball team last weekend, was initially reserved about the sport, but fell in love with it in the eighth grade.

The team is not complete with just Hagglund. Senior Jessica Swarbrick is a 2007 first-team Pac-10 honoree and a two-time All-American. Swarbrick said learning how to fix mistakes is something McLaughlin has taught the team.

“If you want to learn how to improve, you have to know how to change,” Swarbrick said.

Swarbrick led in blocks and hitting percentage last year while red-shirt junior Jill Collymore led the NCAA in aces per set at .077.

Junior libero Tamari Miyashiro was 2007 National Defensive Player of the Year and played solid defense during the Huskies’ barn-burning sets the past few games.

“The key to the team’s success is that we play low-error volleyball,” Miyashiro said.

By the time Miyashiro graduates, she could obliterate the UW’s digs record of 2,038. Miyashiro recently had 14 digs against the Cougars: 14 down, 417 to go.

Miyashiro said the team wants to build on its success.

“We want to put pressure on teams and keep improving in everything,” Miyashiro said.

Despite the double-home loss against Cal and Stanford earlier this year, Coach McLaughlin is positive about the direction of the team. McLaughlin said the team didn’t play poorly in those games and lost close competitive matches.

“It was a lesson learned for sure,” McLaughlin said.

The players were grateful of the support shown by Husky fans this year as the Husky faithful have been coming in droves.

The Huskies will get their shot at revenge when they travel to the Bay Area to face off against Stanford and California this weekend, but these Dawgs aren’t spooked.

McLaughlin has instilled a sense of courage in his team as evidenced by the strong turnaround after the losses to the Bears and the Cardinal.

“Jim is a student of the game and constantly studying the best teams and players in the world to find out what the best ways are to do things,” said assistant coach Leslie Tuiasosopo.

McLaughlin took over the Husky volleyball program in 2001 when the program needed a jolt after coming in last in the Pac-10 the previous year.

“He is one of the hardest-working coaches I know,” Tuiasosopo said. “He loves the game of volleyball, the players on his team and he puts his whole heart and energy into them.”

The Husky volleyball team is the epitome of a successful program: A great coach, great players and great attitude that’ll get gloomy Husky fans through the rainy season.

Reach contributing writer Julian Estrada at development@dailyuw.com.