It only took Arizona indoor volleyball three sets to beat Washington State and record another win at home Thursday night inside McKale Center.
The Wildcats (17-8, 7-6 Pac-12) beat Washington State (16-11, 3-11) 25-18, 25-14, and 26-24.
The Wildcats own a 13-1 record at home and though the road doesn’t treat the Wildcats as well.
“You have to really be tough mentally to play on the road and win,” said head coach Dave Rubio. “You have to have the talent and maturity to do that and so far the games that we’ve played on the road, we’ve played against exceptional teams.”
Thursday night Arizona started strong in the first set with the 10-4 lead forcing Washington State to call a timeout.
The Cougars then scored four straight points to make the set 10-8. Arizona took a time out when the set stood at 12-11.
Junior Jane Croson helped Arizona take the 13-12 lead but it didn’t take much for the Cougars to catch up.
After some back and forth play the Wildcats managed to take the 19-16 lead with the help of junior Madi Kingdon and sophomore Halli Amaro who contributed with kills.
Kingdon had the kill for the winning point of the set.
Washington State was held to just a .022 attack percentage in the opening set.
Arizona started the second set with the 8-2 lead forcing the Cougars to call a timeout. The timeout didn’t work well for them as Arizona continued with the 10-5 lead.
Arizona, taking advantage of Washington State’s timeouts, had the 24-14 lead and Croson made the winning point of the set with a kill.
Arizona had a .467 hitting percentage and Washington State was behind with a .171 percentage for the set.
The Cougars started off aggressively during the third set with the 4-1 lead. After they made a serving error, Arizona took advantage until the set was tied 8-8 and the teams called several times in the second set.
Arizona managed to win the final set 26-24.
Kingdon and junior Taylor Arizobal finished with the most kills for the night. Kingdon had 17 kills including 12 digs and Arizobal had 8 kills.
“I feel good about this win especially going into the game on Sunday because it gives us confidence to know that we beat this team,” Kingdon said.
Kingdon recorded her 11th double-double of the season.
“When we beat teams in three [sets] it really gives our team a lot of confidence especially because Washington State is a really good team,” Arizobal said.
Arizona has not lost a Pac-12 match at home and Kingdon and Arizobal said it doesn’t want to give that away.
After another home sweep, the Wildcats will host No. 3 Washington at 2 p.m. on Sunday inside McKale Center and will be broadcast on the Pac-12 Networks.
— Follow Rose Aly Valenzuela @RoseAlyVal
