P-I Sports Star of the Year Nominee: Christal Morrison, UW volleyball

Wednesday, January 25, 2006

By MARK BERGIN
SPECIAL TO THE POST-INTELLIGENCER

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is one of 10 stories on award winners to be honored at the 71st P-I Sports Star of the Year Banquet, Jan. 31 at the downtown Westin Hotel. Those attending will select the winners. Tickets are $65. Call 206-448-8066.

Young, ambitious and a beach lover, Christal Morrison faced a difficult decision while piling up accolades at Puyallup High School. With talent oozing from every pore of her 6-foot-2 frame, the area's premier female prep volleyball star had her pick of top colleges.


		Meryl Schenker / P-I
	Christal Morrison, a sophomore All-American, led the Huskies in scoring in the NCAA tournament.

Some, like UCLA and USC, offered endless sunshine and white sand -- not to mention a long ingrained habit of challenging for NCAA championships.

Washington offered sharp pebbles, cold water and a conspicuous lack of volleyball tradition.

Morrison chose Washington -- banking with uncanny clairvoyance that coach Jim McLaughlin was building something special.

"I knew if I was going to win a national championship, it would be under Jim's coaching," she said. "He's the most amazing coach I've ever witnessed."

Two seasons later, Morrison's projection became reality. The UW volleyball team swept through all six rounds of the NCAA tournament without dropping a single game.

Morrison was named the tournament's most outstanding player, averaging close to six kills per game and thumping down 15 kills in the championship match against Nebraska.

The powerful outside hitter added nine digs and seven blocks in the final match.

"Being there before helped us a lot," Morrison said, recalling her freshman season when the top-ranked Huskies made the Final Four. "We were prepared and knew what to expect. It's just a different level, and you have to keep getting better."

Though only a sophomore, Morrison elevated her play considerably for the playoffs, overtaking senior Sanja Tomasevic as the Huskies' leading scorer. Throughout the regular season, Morrison had ranked second to Tomasevic -- the Pac-10 Player of the Year -- in kills and points.

The UW volleyball team became only the fourth program in the school's storied athletic school history to claim a national crown -- joining football, men's crew and women's crew.

Morrison received All-America honors for the second consecutive year and backed up her Pac-10 Freshman of the Year award with a place on the all-conference first team.

Capturing the ultimate team award as well hardly surprised her.

"Before we even played a game, we all knew what our goals were," she said. "We knew that we could do it."

Morrison had known it for years.

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