Perfect 10: Jaelyn Hodge Powers Arizona Volleyball to 10-0
It feels a bit fitting North Dakota State was the team standing in Arizona Volleyball’s way, as with a bit of a rebirth in the Wildcats program that is reminiscent of two football seasons ago, which started in earnest with a victory over…the Bison.
Thursday night was a reminder that veteran leadership is key in powering a bounce-back season. Jaelyn Hodge stepped up in a massive way powering the Wildcats with 17 kills on an eye-popping .485 hitting percentage. The Wildcats largely followed suit, as they managed to care for North Dakota State in yet another sweep 25-19, 25-20, 25-22 sweep.
With Hodge pacing the attack, it was Avery Scoggins directing things with 38 assists while chipping in 10 digs to pace the Wildcats defensively and collecting the double-double. Carlie Cisneros added 10 kills of her own to go along with a team-high 3 aces, and Kiari Robey notched a pair of blocks. As a team, Arizona outhit the Bison .361-.213 with 51 kills as a team on 108 attempts.
Service Errors Nearly Became a Problem
The biggest thing for Arizona Volleyball is to celebrate their first 10-game win streak in 15 years. The match was not without things needing to be cleaned up. For a team with a largely float-based serving profile as the Wildcats, with only Ana Heath sporting a jump serve, 14 service errors over three sets are not very good at all and can cost a team a match.
Heath for her part in the match had just two errors to go along with an ace, and by and large, while you’d like it to be at worst a 50/50 ace-to-error ratio you can easily deal with her being slightly off. You can surely expect that after tonight serving will likely be a strong part of upcoming practices to ensure that serving remains aggressive though with a bigger focus on landing in play.
How Long Can Win Streak Continue
With Southern Utah up next for the Wildcats in a match that one could surely expect to see Arizona win on Sunday, attention will likely turn to the start of Big XII Conference play. Arizona has a pair of tough road matchups as a welcome to the Big XII at Baylor, and TCU.
With the match against Baylor looking to be a match to tie the program record of 12 wins, we will get to see our first true test for the Wildcats.
Next. Arizona Faces Most Adversity yet, but downs New Mexico State. Arizona Faces Most Adversity yet, but downs New Mexico State. dark
Up Next: 9/21 vs. Southern Utah Noon MST on ESPN+