Coming off an upset loss at WSU the week before, the Washington volleyball team’s road woes continued Friday with No. 18 Arizona.

But this time, it didn’t last the whole weekend. Nor did it last an entire match.

After dropping their first set to Arizona Friday night, the No. 5 Huskies (19-2, 9-2 Pac-10) quickly regained their composure and cruised to an 18-25, 25-20, 25-18, 25-19 victory over the Wildcats (15-6, 4-6). The UW stayed hot in Arizona State Sunday, sweeping the Sun Devils (12-11, 2-9), 25-23, 28-26, 25-18.

Head coach Jim McLaughlin was pleased with the Huskies’ composure on the road, something they didn’t show two weeks ago in the loss to WSU.

“Any time you win two matches the way we did on the road and in the Pac-10, you have to have some maturity and composure,” the ninth-year head coach said. “I thought we played well, and I am fired up for the two wins.”

It didn’t look good in the first set of Friday’s match, as Arizona outhit the UW .270 to .056 while the Huskies made eight hitting errors. But the Huskies bounced back, like the fifth-ranked team in the nation should, and went on to beat the Wildcats behind 18 kills from junior Kindra Carlson, and 14 kills, 13 digs, four blocks and one ace from senior Jill Collymore.

“We settled down and showed some maturity and composure,” McLaughlin said. “We got after it, and things turned our way.”

Yesterday’s sweep against Arizona State was primarily a defensive effort, as the team racked up 63 digs and 10.5 blocks. The defense held its ground during the first two sets while the offense finally came alive in the third set. Carlson carried a large part of the attack, racking up a career-high 24 kills. McLaughlin was impressed with both Carlson and junior setter Jenna Hagglund.

“[Carlson] carried a lot of the offensive load while Jenna made some good choices in the offense and got her the ball,” McLaughlin said.

Carlson has found success against the Arizona schools this year. When both Arizona and Arizona State visited Seattle last year, the junior racked up a combined 29 kills during the two matches. Against the same teams on the road, she had a combined 42.

The UW made significant serving improvements last week in practice, and it showed this weekend. After committing 18 service errors in the loss to WSU, the Huskies made seven against Arizona and five against Arizona State.

“We served much better,” McLaughlin said. “We put a huge emphasis on it, and we saw [the serves] improve in the matches.”

With the two wins this weekend, combined with a Stanford loss to UCLA Saturday, the Huskies have regained the Pac-10 lead with just seven conference matches remaining.

For one reason or another, the second half of the season has usually been the better half for the UW. They have gone 8-1 in the latter part of the season three out of the last four years.

The UW will hope to repeat that second-half success next weekend as it hosts two Pac-10 powerhouses. No. 4 Stanford visits the UW Friday for a showdown between the top two teams in the conference, while No. 14 California will square off against the Huskies Saturday.

Reach reporter Taylor Soper at sports@dailyuw.com.