Turns out being upset for the first time in seven years by your in-state rivals can sometimes be a good thing.

The loss last Saturday at Washington State exposed some weaknesses of the No. 5 Washington volleyball team. After a week of intense and competitive practices, the squad has addressed many of the shortcomings that caused the loss. And most importantly, they’ve improved.

“We figured out what we needed to work on,” junior setter Jenna Hagglund said. “Our serves were a problem, and our offense wasn’t fast enough like it used to be. We’re back on track right now and just hungry for more.”

The UW (17-2, 7-2 Pac-10) will hit the road again this weekend as they head to the desert to face No. 18 Arizona (15-5, 4-5) Friday and Arizona State (11-10, 1-8) Sunday.

Serving was a problem last week, as the Huskies had 18 service errors compared to WSU’s four. Head coach Jim McLaughlin held competitions this week to find out who the most consistent servers were. Freshman Kelly Holford and sophomore Kandiss Anderson both performed well this week, and McLaughlin “isn’t afraid” to use either this weekend.

The UW has dropped its last two road matches. The first loss came at Stanford three weeks ago, the second last weekend at WSU. There’s no question the Huskies have moved forward from the loss last weekend and are ready to get back on another winning streak.

“You can’t dwell on the loss, and you’ve got to look forward,” Hagglund said. “We take it one practice at a time to get better.”

Practice this week has been very productive and competitive, McLaughlin said. Increased pressure and a higher intensity resulted in improvement.

“We scored the drills differently and put a little more pressure on there,” he said. “Every point was real urgent, and we had to get more success in a row. They responded to it. It was good, and I should have done it a while ago.”

McLaughlin noted that it’s all about how his team is prepared to face certain game situations that you can’t exactly replicate in practices.

“We train in the areas where we’ve made these mistakes, and when we’re [in the match], you don’t know when these situations are going to come up,” he said. “You have to be very aware, and you can’t let up mentally. I thought we did a better job of that this week.”

Friday’s match against Arizona officially marks the start to the second half of the season. The Huskies have typically done much better in the latter part of the season, going 8-1 in three of the past four seasons in the second half. The UW will face each Pac-10 team once more, with five of the final nine Pac-10 matches played at home.

With the first half of the season already over, the intensity begins to pick up as the NCAA championships approach. While the team practices as much as possible, the coaches realize that as the season goes along, they must balance the amount of work and rest.

“Every day you practice you tend to get better, but the challenge is reducing the volume,” McLaughlin explained. “Over a five-month season, the accumulative effect of all the things you do wear on you mentally and physically, so you got to keep the players fresh, but you’ve also got to keep the intensity high.”

The players are eager to get back on the court and return to their winning ways. Losing for the third and possibly fourth consecutive time on the road isn’t even on their minds.

“We aren’t thinking about losing at all,” Hagglund said. “We’re going to be really aggressive this weekend and try not to think about the wins and losses.”

Reach reporter Taylor Soper at sports@dailyuw.com.