(Tucson, AZ)
Bill McCulloch
After a promising road trip to Los Angeles last week, even though they fell to the #17 Trojans of USC, Wildcat Head Coach Dave Rubio saw promise in certain areas from the outside hitters as they prepared for the home stand against the Oregon Schools.
Enter the Oregon State Beavers. Over a thousand fans came to McKale to see the young improving Cats after giving Southern Cal a run for their money face a good Beaver Team. What happened tonight was to say the least, “disappointing .”
That was one of the first words Rubio used to describe tonight’s effort by a listless Wildcat Squad in his post match Press Conference.
In the first set, it wasn’t that the Beavers put the hammer down, but more like a series of mental errors along with poor play from the outside hitters that saw Arizona go down 17-9 digging themselves an insurmountable hole enroute to a loss in the first set 14-25.
At the start of the second set, the Cats got their first lead 4-3, off a Kendra Dahlke block. With a great smash by McKenzie Jacobson, Arizona would see its last lead of the night 5-4.
Then the errors started to occur. Missed assignments, not staying in their zones, among other things spelled the beginning of the end this night for Zona.
Training 8-12 the Cats temporarily found themselves to bring the score to 11-13 on a 3-1 run capped off by a Dahlke cross court smash. Trading points they still managed to keep it close 12-14.
Then the Arizona momentum stopped, as the Beavers reasserted themselves to right their ship 18-12.
The Cats once again surged to get back within three at 16-19 off Tyler Spriggs’s fifth kill of the contest. A 2-1 point exchange brought the score to 18-20 Beavers.
Once again in the second set Oregon State would surge further ahead 24-19 setting up set point. A service ace by the Cats wouldn’t be their last gasp of the set 24-20, as the Beavers would close it out by a score of 25-22.
Going into the locker room down 2-0, Coach Rubio was thoroughly disgusted on the lack of effort not being able to put an opponent away. This was a completely opposite effort from the USC match. He needed to change things up for the all important third set to stay alive.
Oregon State came out of the break the same as they went in, jumping out in the lead 2-1 quickly and 5-3. As they push the pedal down the lead grew to 12-5 as their confidence grew.
The Wildcats wouldn’t give up, coming back to 11-15 at the mid set point. Liz Shelton would make her tenth kill to keep Arizona within three 14-17
With the next four points from the Beavers, on a series of errors by his team, Rubio tried to work some final magic with Dahlke providing a last hurrah at 17-22. Arizona went quietly after that 18-25 and losing the match in three consecutive sets.
There’s little time to reestablish a positive direction with the Oregon Ducks coming to town Sunday off a spirited victory over the Sun Devils tonight.
Game starts at High Noon in the next to last home match for these young Wildcats. The next forty eight hours will be crucial for Arizona as they try to establish some much needed momentum to close out their season.
