This weekend officially marks the half-way point for Arizona athletics in the fall semester and it couldn’t of come at a better time as parents will accompany students for the festivities included with Family Weekend.
The mid-way point of the semester also tests student’s patience and determination to finish out the semester, which is also true in sports. Regardless of how each of the fall sports has started its seasons, it’s now the final stretch until the second week of December when we all go home for Christmas.
From rotating three quarterbacks to a hole-in-one, here are updates on how each sport is doing up until this week.
Football
The Arizona football team is on track to have the worst season in the Rich Rodriguez era as the Wildcats started off the year with a 2-4 record. Arizona’s offseason started out tough with the passing of senior offensive lineman Zach Hemmila dying in his sleep from medication complications.
Then the Arizona Cardinals provided the Wildcats the indoor practice facility in Tempe for a weekend getaway from the loss of Hemmila and the heavy monsoon storms that kept the team from practicing.
Quarterback Anu Solomon returned for his third season as the starting quarterback, after being tested by Brandon Dawkins, but a knee injury in practice following the season opener against BYU gave Dawkins a chance to prove his worth.
Dawkins is 2-3 as the starter, but suffered a rib injury against UCLA and a concussion last week against Utah, so it may be 17-year-old freshman Khalil Tate earning minutes and providing a taste of the future at the quarterback position.
Three quarterbacks and four losses isn’t the way Rodriguez wanted the season to start, but the next six games should be interesting to see how who will take the reigns under center in the future.
Next Game: USC, Saturday, 12:30 p.m. kickoff at Arizona Stadium.
Volleyball
Outside of softball head coach Mike Candrea, volleyball head coach Dave Rubio is the longest active head coach in Arizona athletics with 25-years under his belt. The Wildcats stumbled to start the season with a 0-3 record, but unlike the football team, the volleyball squad caught fire recently with a 12-3 record since the start of September.
Against top-25 opponents, Arizona is 2-5, but swept No. 22 USC and No. 18 UCLA over the past weekend. The Wildcats came back against the Bruins after being down the first two sets, and if the season compares to their recent trip to Los Angeles, Arizona isn’t finished until the final point is tallied.
Next game: At No. 12 Stanford, Friday, 8 p.m.
Soccer
Arizona soccer started off the first eight matches with a 6-1-1 record, but had a four match skid from mid-September to the first weekend of October going 0-4.
The Wildcats have been led by the offensive juggernaut in junior midfielder Gabi Stoian who’s held the top scoring spot on the team for the last two seasons. Stoian remains the top offensive option this season for the Cats with four goals as well as five assists.
Arizona split the Washington schools last week and will focus on its next trip to the Pacific Northwest.
Next match: Oct. 20, At Oregon, 4 p.m.
Men and women’s Golf
In recent years, the men and women’s golf programs are polar opposites when it comes to success. The women’s team is coming off a season finishing in fourth place in the Pac-12 Championships and second in the NCAA Regionals. The men’s team, on the other hand, hasn’t finished higher than ninth place in the Pac-12 Championships.
This season, the men’s team has an individual bright spot with junior Jordan Gumberg who hit a hole-in-one on the first day of action at the William H. Tucker Intercollegiate, but the Wildcats are still searching for their first team win in the Jim Anderson era.
Next tournament: October 16, Tavistock invitational in Islworth, Florida.
The women’s team has taken a step back after losing Lindsey Weaver to graduation and returned to the Annika Intercollegiate in last place after finishing in second place a year ago.
Sophomore Haley Moore who finished the Annika Intercollegiate tied for third place at nine-under-par has shown her capabilities of carrying the torch as Arizona’s top women’s golfer. Moore will return to the big stage when the Wildcats say Aloha for the Pac-12 Preview at the end of the month.
Next tournament: October 24, Pac-12 Preview in Kailua Kona, Hawai’i.
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