When the No. 4 Cal volleyball team travelled to Seattle, Wash., a month ago to face then-No. 9 Washington, it defeated the Huskies in straight sets to hand them their first sweep at home since 2003.

It only took an hour and 29 minutes on Sunday for Washington to return the favor.

Marred by a subpar defensive effort and poor passing, the Bears dropped their first home match this year to the No. 6 Huskies, 3-0 (25-17, 27-25, 25-19).

"I'm going to quote Coach (Chris) Bigelow. She said to the team that she was feeling like we were on a little bit of a vacation since (defeating) Stanford," coach Rich Feller said. "When you look at it, and you look at the progression since Stanford, we haven't been as sharp."

Cal (19-3, 9-2 in the Pac-10) struggled to get touches on Washington's attacks, recording just five blocks in the match while surrendering a .298 hitting percentage to the Huskies (17-4, 8-3).

"I thought we were in a good spot a bunch of times to block, but we were just late getting there," Feller said. "When we didn't block, they hit a little chop shot that landed in front of our defense or behind our defense. It was hard."

The Bears had difficulty getting off clean passes under the duress of the hard-hitting Washington attack, which disrupted sophomore setter Carli Lloyd's ability to set the outside and middle hitters. Outside hitters Hana Cutura and Am'ra Solomon combined for just 18 kills, and the team as a whole committed 22 attacking errors.

"I think they did a great job blocking, forcing our hitters to be uncomfortable with their go-to swings which, I mean, obviously affected our entire game," junior libero Kristen Kathan said. "They did a great job moving us on defense and mixing up their shots, passing efficiently."

The locker room mood after the match was subdued, and the focus of the conversation was on the adjustments that the coaching staff will be making in light of Cal's slow start to its second run through the Pac-10.

"We've been a little bit beat up so we've been reducing reps and shortening practices," Feller said. "Maybe we need to stop doing that and lengthen practices and increase reps."

With the toughest homestand of the year on the horizon-a nine-day span during which the Bears will see the No. 3 Cardinal, No. 9 UCLA and No. 12 USC-no part of Cal's game will be exempt from criticism in the next few weeks of practice.

"I think in all areas we were not playing to the level we know we can play at," Kathan said. "Our passing's not as efficient as we want it to be. Our blocking's not as efficient as we want it to be. Hitters should be getting kills when they're not, and it's tough. But hopefully a loss like this is going to keep pushing us to get on the right track."

Tags: CAL VOLLEYBALL, RICH FELLER, HANA CUTURA