Arizona Volleyball looks promising despite 3-0 loss to No. 10 Utah

Opening up their Season in Salt Lake City, the Arizona Volleyball team showed promise early on but ultimately fell to No. 10 Utah 3-0 on Friday night.

Anytime you open the season on the road with only one returning senior in your squad, the odds are likely long that you will be able to pull off a major upset against a Top 10 team but that’s what Dave Rubio and Arizona Volleyball faced against No. 10 Utah.

Paced at the net on the night by Turkish newcomer Dilara Gedikoglu, the Wildcats were able to hold tight with the Utes all first set before falling 25-23.

Arizona Wildcats

However, once the second set started, Utah showed just how deserving they were of being ranked No. 10, as they took full control of the match taking the second set 25-17, and then the third and final set 25-15 to finish off the sweep.

Arizona finished the match with a .029 hitting percentage for the night and also ran into a bit of trouble behind the service line that thwarted any momentum they were able to build up.

Match Leaders:

·        Kills: Gedikoglu (9)

·        Assists: Akia Warrior (12)

·        Aces: Sofia Maldonado (2)

·        Digs: Gedikoglu (9)

·        Blocks: Zyonna Fellows (3)

A Team Still Finding its Footing

Despite how lopsided the stats look in this one, there are definite signs of optimism for the Wildcats. Freshmen Sofia Maldonado, Emery Herman, Jaelyn Hodge, and China Rai Crouch all made their Arizona Volleyball debuts by opening their careers against the preseason Pac-12 favorites.

Arizona will have another shot against the Utes on Sunday, and it definitely wouldn’t be a surprise to see each of these ladies take a giant leap forward with the first game jitters out of the way.

With a freshman class that topped the Pac-12 in the 2020 recruiting cycle and will be heavily leaned on as showcased last night by Coach Rubio, growing pains are to be expected. However, this squad showed early on that once they get going, they could be a dark horse this year.

No Place to Go But Up

Hitting .029 for a match that included a set hitting -.028 and having nearly as many hitting errors (21) as kills (25), the odds are not very good that you will find much success on the scoreboard. Add in nearly three times as many service errors (10) to aces (4), and welp your odds get that much worse.

The good news is that despite all the ugliness that the box score showed for Arizona, a lot of it is very realistic and simple to clean up. Errors are to be expected in any game and eliminating them completely is an impossible task, but taking out at least a big chunk of the serving errors will likely come naturally thanks in large part to having more opportunities for a young squad.

With a team as new to each other as the Wildcats are, I can’t say that this kind of a result in a first-run out is all that unexpected, as no matter how much you practice, scrimmage, and try and simulate it, there’s just nothing that can match the intensity of Pac-12 Volleyball.

No matter what we love our Wildcats and can’t wait to watch them take the court again against Utah again on Sunday! Bear Down, Arizona!