From rain to sunshine, Washington State Volleyball heads to California this weekend to take on No. 20 USC and No. 16 UCLA for the second time this season. The Cougars (10-12, 1-9) play USC (12-9, 5-6) at 7 p.m. tonight in the Galen Center, followed by UCLA (15-6, 6-4 pending Oct. 31 match vs. No. 2 UW) at 11 a.m. Sunday in the John Wooden Center.

“Seeing what we did the last time that maybe didn’t work,” said senior defensive specialist Shawna Lum, discussing how the Cougars are preparing differently for playing Pac-12 teams a second time. “Just little things that we can change. We know their tendencies.”

WSU took two sets against USC earlier this month, but lost to the Trojans in the fifth set 15-11. Against the Bruins, WSU took it to four but fell by two points in the final set.

“It’s just those little things, those little adjustments that you make,” Head Coach Jen Greeny said, explaining what adjustments the Cougars are making for this weekend in an interview with wsucougars.com.

The second trip through the Pac-12 doesn’t look to get any easier for the Cougars. Currently, seven teams in the conference occupy spots in the top-20 of the AVCA Coaches’ poll including Stanford (20-0, 10-0) and Washington (21-0, 10-0) who are ranked as the top-two teams in the nation.

Senior middle blocker Ver’Leea Hardaway said to beat these teams, the Cougars have to run a fast offense and beat the other teams’ blockers to the pin.

“I think that the middles are going to have to drive in order to freeze their middles so our outsides can be one on one,” Hardaway said.

The Cougars are coming off of a three-set win against Utah, their first Pac-12 win of the season. Sophomore outside hitter Kyra Holt led the team in kills with 12, followed by senior middle blocker Chlesey Bettinson with 11. WSU beat the Utes in hitting percentage, kills, aces, digs, and blocks. Defensively, junior libero Kate Sommer and senior outside hitter Jaicee Harris tied in digs with 14. Lum said the defense is coming together and their energy is being shown a lot more than at the beginning of the season.

“Chelsey and I just driving hard and yelling loud for our sets froze Utah’s blockers, which created big holes for our outsides,” Hardaway said. “I think that’s something we definitely have to keep doing.”

Both matches this weekend will have radio broadcasts on KQQQ-AM (1250) and wsucougars.com. Pac-12 Networks will carry live coverage of the match at USC tonight.