The Arizona volleyball team went a perfect 3-for-3 after it hosted the Sheraton Four Points Wildcat Classic tournament this weekend in the McKale Center.
The Wildcats swept Weber State (26-24, 25-13, 25-19), San Jose State (25-19, 25-13, 28-26) and Gardner-Webb (25-12, 25-21, 25-15), but those numbers weren’t good enough for some.
UA starting setter Paige Weber, who was named tournament MVP, said that despite the team’s victories, there’s still much room for improvement.
“”I feel that this weekend had a lot of lackadaisical effort and a lot of dumb errors,”” Weber said. “”That’s going to be a major focus, because once we get into conference, that stuff’s going to kill us.””
Weber’s low tolerance of avoidable mistakes runs alongside of some positive things she saw this weekend. The sophomore, who played in all nine games, said the depth and cohesiveness of the squad is unchanging.
“”There are players in every position on the bench and we feed them in and out and the chemistry doesn’t seem to change,”” Weber said. “”So that’s a really nice thing to have, especially going into the really long season that’s coming up.””
An example of the team chemistry came against Weber State on Friday. A ball was passed tight to the net and Weber, who was back row in the rotation, had to make a close to impossible set with one hand. Junior middle blocker Jacy Norton was ready in the air and not only got the kill for her team, but nearly knocked her opponent over with the power behind the ball.
“”Honestly, it was just one of those plays that you couldn’t do twice if you tried,”” Norton said of the kill. “”It’s hard for setters and middles to connect in general, but that kind of thing comes along with the chemistry of playing together for so long.””
The flawless string of matches could have been a result of the new seat-minimizing curtain, the strong freshmen class, the first-match-of-the-season excitement or all of the above.
One thing is for certain: UA head volleyball coach David Rubio is happy to add three W’s to the team’s record, but he is far from content.
“”Probably the list of things I didn’t like is much longer than the list that I really liked,”” Rubio said. “”There’s no question we’re just making too many errors.””
Success in the sport of volleyball comes along with making mistakes, but the number of serving, passing and attacking errors is what can make or break the performance of a team.
Every time a team makes an error, it scores a point for the other team because of the rally point system. Rubio said that the team’s percentage of error was at 20 to 25 percent – a number he would like to minimize to 10 percent.
Rubio and the players believe the other side of the net shouldn’t matter, though. As a result, Rubio said the team will focus on the stats of the game this week in practice by creating a match-like environment.
“”We were uninspired, there was not much motion or energy out there,”” Rubio said. “”It’s always easier to coach and play when you feel a little threatened and have that adrenaline flowing through your veins.””
