Last November, the Stanford women’s volleyball team clinched its first conference title in five years with a win over Washington in the last week of Pac-10 play. Even though the No. 5 Cardinal will play four more matches after this weekend’s visit to the No. 4 Huskies, this match will be just as important in determining the Pacific-10 Conference winner as it was in 2006.

The Cardinal head north this weekend with a chance at revenge for a five-game loss at home earlier this season and can make up the one-game gap in conference standings.

Stanford (22-2, 11-2 Pac-10) has two losses so far this season, to Washington and to No. 6 Southern California. The Huskies (21-1, 11-1) have lost just once, to No. 8 California. If Stanford can pull off the win on Washington’s home court tonight — no easy feat — and each team wins the rest of its matches, the conference title would come down to a tiebreaker. With Washington’s win coming in five games, Stanford could put itself in a position to claim a repeat title with a win in three or four games.

“If we win then the two of us are tied and they have the tougher schedule the rest of the way,” head coach John Dunning said. “But if they win, then they have one loss and everyone else in the Pac-10 has at least three. [Winning the Pac-10] could still happen, but it would be out of our control unless we can win.”

Though both teams are a lock for NCAA bids and high seeds, more than bragging rights are at stake this weekend. With a win, the Cardinal would re-enter the top four in the national rankings. If that were to happen, the Cardinal would likely be the top team in the Stanford Regional in December and would not need to face the other top NCAA teams until the Final Four.

Winning tonight would also break several long streaks — Stanford has not won in Seattle since 2002 and Washington has not lost at home in 38 matches. The Huskies have swept every opponent since playing five games against Stanford a month ago and have not lost a single game at home this year.

“We have struggled there the last couple years, but we are very ready to play this match,” Dunning said. “We have gotten pretty good at controlling the ball and minimizing errors, which was not the case last time we played them. We made too many errors then, but we have gotten better about that. What we want to do is put our best effort out on the floor and if it is good enough to beat them, then that’s great — a good sign for us.”

Last week, Washington swept Arizona and Arizona State on the road; freshman setter Jenna Hagglund was named Pac-10 Player of the Week, the third conference honor in four weeks for a Husky.

Hagglund has stepped right into the sizeable shoes of Courtney Thompson, who graduated last year after leading her team to three straight Final Fours and the program’s first national championship. Hagglund averages 13.69 assists per game, second only to Stanford’s senior setter Bryn Kehoe in the conference.

On the other end of Hagglund’s sets, three returning All-Americans are leading a Washington offense that has steamrolled most of its competition. Outside hitter Christal Morrison and middle blockers Alesha Deesing and Jessica Swarbrick lead the way, though Stevie Mussie has certainly made an impression on Washington’s opponents, the Cardinal in particular.

When the Huskies visited Maples on October 12, the Cardinal was undefeated and Washington had just lost for the first time, in five games to California the night before. Washington won the first game of the match, but Stanford took the next two in a row to pull ahead. The Huskies evened the match by winning the fourth game and took that momentum into a 15-10 fifth-game victory.

Mussie led Washington with 20 kills, most of them in the final two frames, while Stanford’s junior outside hitter Cynthia Barboza had 20 as well. The match was about as even as it could have been, with the teams registering the same number of kills, while the Cardinal had two more blocks and the Huskies four more digs. The biggest difference was in the serving, where Hagglund recorded five aces.

Washington’s libero Tamari Miyashiro dug 37 balls, while the Cardinal’s freshman libero Gabi Ailes had a then-career-high 24.

On the season, Morrison leads the Huskies with 290 kills while Mussie has 283. Miyashiro has 417 digs at a pace of 5.4 per game, the second-best in the Pac-10.

For the Cardinal, Barboza and freshman outside hitter Alix Klineman lead the attack with 327 and 320 kills, respectively. Junior middle blocker Foluke Akinradewo is right behind them with 298 at an NCAA-best .483 clip. Kehoe’s 14.10 assists per game is also among the best averages in the nation.

Ailes currently has 361 digs and needs 23 to break into the top ten single-season digging performances in Stanford history. She recently broke the single-match record with 31 in a four-game loss to USC.

After tonight’s battle with the Huskies, the Cardinal will fly across the state Friday morning to take on Washington State (9-17, 0-12). The Cougars won their first six games of the season, but a conference win has eluded them in the perennially powerful Pac-10.

“Anyone we play can beat us, on their home court especially,” Dunning said. “We have no choice — we have to come back and be ready to play. It will be a long travel day, but it is not an option not to be ready. We will need to come out and play our best.”

At home, the Cardinal swept Washington State in October behind 16 Klineman kills. Adetokunbo Faleti paced her team with 15, but Stanford proved too much for the Cougars to handle.

Four players on the WSU roster have at least 200 kills on the season. Tara West has amassed a team-high .254 hitting percentage and also leads the way with 106 blocks. Setter Maureen Perez is also the Cougars’ top server, while libero Kelly Hyder anchors the defense with 4.9 digs per game.

Following this final Pac-10 road trip, the Cardinal will be at home for three more matches, hosting Arizona and Arizona State next weekend and closing out the conference season with Cal the day after Thanksgiving.