Arizona women’s volleyball won two out of three matches over the weekend in the Cactus Classic at McKale Center.

The Wildcats breezed through the first two matches against Appalachian State and Loyola Marymount without even dropping a set. Katie Smoot led the Wildcats with 12 kills in their first game and Paige Whipple followed her with 8 kills of her own. In the next game, Smoot and Whipple once again lead the Wildcats with 10 kills each.

The last game on Saturday, however, Arizona fell to Samford University in five back-and-forth sets for their first loss of the year. Whipple again led the team in kills, but this time had 14. This was Samford’s first win of the year after losing to the two teams that Arizona beat.

In the middle of the third set Arizona, had one of the best plays of the entire tournament. After Samford spiked the ball, Arizona was able to keep it up, but the ball went over to the bench and Emi Pua’a was able to dive into the bench and keep the play going. It wasn’t enough for the Wildcats, though, and this was Samford’s first win over a top-25 team in program history.

Arizona will now travel to San Diego to play Nebraska, West Virginia and San Diego State in the SDSU/USD Invitational this weekend.

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