Arizona’s volleyball team could not stretch its current winning steak to three, as it lost in four sets to No. 2 Washington last night in Seattle, 30-19, 30-25, 29-31, 30-19.
“”It didn’t feel like they were the No. 2 team,”” freshman outside hitter Whitney Dosty said. “”We kept our composure while playing them pretty well and did our part. Unfortunately we didn’t win, though.””
UA head coach Dave Rubio did not travel with the team because his wife is having twins in Tucson.
“”There was definitely a difference with him not being there,”” Dosty said, “”but Dana (Burkholder) and Chris (Gonzalez), our assistant coaches, did a great job tonight and took over the game pretty well for us.””
Dosty led the Wildcats (12-16, 3-13 Pacific 10 Conference) with 19 kills, while hitting .238.
But with 28 kills and hitting a monstrous .361, Washington junior outside hitter Christal Morrison downsized all Arizona players.
Always one step ahead, the Huskies (23-3, 13-2) edged the Wildcats in kills (72 to 60), digs (79 to 75), assists (67 to 59) and team blocks (13 to 11).
“”Our blocking tonight wasn’t as good as it has been in the past,”” Dosty said of the Wildcats, who lead the conference in blocks. “”On our side of the net, I can’t say too much went wrong.””
The Wildcats play tonight at 7:30 p.m. at Washington State (15-14, 3-12), a squad that downed them in four sets in McKale Center on Oct. 19, before finishing the season next week at ASU.
In the last meeting between the two teams Rubio said he was unhappy with his team’s performance to the point where he was “”thinking about starting to put people in from the stands.””
-Ari Wasserman contributed to this report