Arizona volleyball came out swinging on Friday, defeating Oregon State 3-0 (25-20, 25-16, 25-17), before crumbling yesterday to No. 20 Oregon in a heartbreaking 3-0 loss (25-22, 25-11, 29-27).

On Sunday, the Wildcats (15-10, 7-9) took the Ducks by surprise with an aggressive start both offensively and defensively, leading the majority of the first game and making six blocks. Despite the Wildcats’ impressive defense at the net, the Ducks picked up their offense by overpowering those defensive efforts and nabbing the first game.

Arizona’s defense and aggressive spirit disappeared in the second game. The Ducks took control of the entire second set, rarely giving the Wildcats an opportunity to get on the board.

“It was like we put all of our eggs in one basket in Game 1 and decided we weren’t going to be able to do anything in Game 2,” head coach Dave Rubio said. “We quit fighting and it was disappointing. I haven’t seen us just roll over like that in awhile.”

But after the break, the Wildcats stormed the court looking for redemption, vigorously fighting throughout the entire game.

With tension mounting, the Wildcats had two game-point opportunities, but blew both with service errors. Even the Ducks missed their game-point opportunity with a missed serve. The third set really came down to which team made its serves, and that team was Oregon.

“There’s no reason why Game 3 shouldn’t have been extended to Game 4,” Rubio said. “I’m not sure if it’s our youth that’s starting to show, but we’re certainly not playing with any kind of maturity.”
It was another match Rubio felt his team didn’t lose, but gave away, he said.

Arizona did have a total of 12 blocks throughout the match, but it wasn’t enough.

“I don’t think there was a highlight in today’s game,” Rubio said.
On Friday, both Arizona and Oregon State were going into the match 6-8 in conference play.

Overall the match was fairly competitive, going point for point in each game. The Wildcats’ offense was on fire, nailing ball after ball. Arizona came out victorious in a clean 3-0 win, one-upping the Beavers in conference.

Freshman Madison Kingdon and senior Courtney Karst were the night’s offensive leaders. Kingdon topped the kill chart with 15 and Karst followed with 13. Karst had a team-high .591 hitting percentage for the match.

Freshman Chloe Mathis totaled 37 assists for the Wildcats.