It was almost a mirror image of the volleyball match played between the Arizona Wildcats and the Utah Utes in McKale Center at the beginning of October. Arizona won that match 3-2 (23-25, 25-12, 17-25, 26-24, 15-13). The home team once again came out on top Friday evening, but it was the Utes doing the hosting in a 3-2 (19-25, 25-18, 25-21, 29-31, 15-9) victory this time.
Arizona head coach Rita Stubbs and her team having been aiming for the NCAA Tournament since the minute their name was not called last year. Going to the state of Utah to play BYU and the Utes was a big opportunity to help their cause this year. She felt the pressure may have gotten to them, but she didn’t understand why.
“I do,” she said. “I do—for no reason. You know, I kept telling them it’s like, okay, we gotta go through the fire. You can’t just think it’s not going to be there. You know, [Utah is] hungry. They still want to go. And remember, they were a good team, predicted to be a good team this year. They were dealing with injuries and whatnot and and they’re putting the pieces together at the right time.”
It came down to serving and passing, as most matches do. Arizona had 71 kills to Utah’s 62. The Wildcats won digs 79-71. But Utah controlled the serve and pass game.
The Utes served 10 aces while only committing eight service errors. The Wildcats not only had trouble returning Utah’s serves, but they struggled with their own serve. Arizona had two aces against 12 service errors. Six of those service errors came in the fourth set and allowed the Utes to come back and force multiple extra points before Arizona finally won. Whether that helped Utah get off to a good start in the 15-point final set is open to debate.
Outside hitters Jordan Wilson and Carlie Cisneros had strong offensive games. Wilson (29) and Cisneros (23) both had season highs in kills. Cisneros also served Arizona’s only two aces.
“Carlie and Jordan, they attacked well,” Stubbs said. “That was good to see. ”
Arizona also made some spectacular defensive plays. Libero Brenna Ginder once again showed how far her defense has come this year. The sophomore flew around the court, diving for the ball, and keeping balls off the floor when it looked impossible.
Ginder ended with a match-high 22 digs, just one less than the career high she set against Texas Tech two weeks ago. No one else on either team had more than 16.
“She was going after some balls and was like, ‘Okay, this ball can’t fall,‘ Stubbs said. ”And she got in there when the blockers or the passer wasn’t necessarily doing what they were supposed to. I thought she picked up the slack for sure.“
The problem came with getting others involved in the offensive game. Right side Renee Jones had six kills on .333 hitting. Middle blocker Journey Tucker ended with eight kills on 15 swings. The junior didn’t have a hitting error for the third straight match, ending with a .533 hitting percentage. Stubbs wanted to see more both offensively and from the block.
“Our passing wasn’t always good enough to get the middles involved,” she said. “And…in the beginning, we didn’t do a good job of stopping their attacker, who was hitting line or going through the block. We were just a beat off, which is very frustrating.”
Blocking was the other part of the game the Utes won. They had 11 total blocks. Arizona had less than half that with just five.
Stubbs knows the time until selection day is getting short. Whether a sweep next week gets the team into the tournament or not is open for debate, and it’s not an incredibly easy two matches regardless of the records. Cincinnati is playing especially well right now, defeating No. 21 Colorado in three sets on senior night. West Virginia pushed No. 22 Iowa State to five sets on Friday.
“We need to be able to defend our home court,” Stubbs said. “And I haven’t watched either one of those teams nearly enough, but I know that they’re hungry.”
