(Tucson, AZ) The Arizona volleyball team will hold its annual Red-Blue Scrimmage this Saturday, Aug. 24, in McKale Center. The match will begin at 2 p.m. MST.
Admission will be free with first-come, first-served seating.
This will mark the first opportunity for fans to get a glimpse at the 2019 Wildcats. It will be a final tune up, one week before the team opens the season at the Cactus Classic, Aug. 30-31 at McKale Center. Arizona opens play vs. Appalachian State (10 a.m.) and Loyola Marymount (7 p.m.) on Friday, Aug. 30before taking on Samford (12 p.m.) on Saturday, Aug. 31.
Saturday’s scrimmage will wrap up two weeks of two-a-days for the team before heading into game-week preparation.
After beginning the season with its home tournament in week 1, Arizona will head on the road in back-to-back weeks before returning home to wrap up nonconference play with a second home tournament (Sept. 20-21). Arizona’s full schedule can be found here.
Preseason Notes
Arizona is ranked No. 24 in the nation in the AVCA Preseason Top 25, marking the third season in the last five that the Wildcats have began the season ranked. UA was ranked 25th in the final 2018 poll. Arizona will play the nation’s top-two preseason teams (No. 1 Stanford and No. 2 Nebraska) as well as four other ranked Pac-12 teams (No. 11 Oregon, No. 14 Washington, No. 14 USC and No. 22 Washington State) this season.
The Wildcats were picked sixth in the Preseason Pac-12 Coaches Poll. UA will look to finish in the top half of the Pac-12 for the second straight season after its fifth-place finish a season ago. Defending national champion Stanford is the conference favorite followed by USC, Oregon, Washington and Utah.
The Wildcats return four starters and their libero from last year’s 22-win team as well as almost all of their key contributors off the bench, including outside hitter Elizabeth Shelton, who played in all 43 sets over UA’s first 12 matches of the season before suffering a season-ending injury a season ago. Arizona’s core is led by senior setter Julia Patterson (2018 Pac-12 double-doubles leader, 2018 all-Pac-12 honorable mention) and senior middle blocker Devyn Cross (2018 AVCA All-America honorable mention, 2018 all-Pac-12 honorable mention).
Courtesy of Arizona Communication Services
