Hockey takes down No. 6 OU

In its second straight upset victory, No. 20 Arizona stunned No. 6 Ohio on Thursday night, 3-1 at the Tucson Convention Center.

Three games ago, the Wildcats seemed to be in trouble. They had lost two straight, including 5-1 to No. 7 Oklahoma, tying their most lopsided loss of the season. Yet the team rebounded the next night to win in Oklahoma City and then continued its strong play by beating a title contender in Ohio.

“We are a real team, a new program,” defenseman Geordy Weed said. “That win lets everybody know we mean business.”

Both sides went scoreless in the first period.

“The whole team played defensively,” Weed said. “(From) the forwards to the defense to (goalkeeper David) Herman, who played a heck of a game.”

After the defensive battle continued through the second period, forward David Rizk finally broke deadlock in the third with a deep slapshot. Then, just 18 seconds later, assistant captain and leading scorer Brady Lefferts added another goal to give the Wildcats control of the game.

“I couldn’t even celebrate because I was so excited,” Rizk said.
The Bobcats scored with less than four minutes left with a power play goal but defenseman Shane Gleason added an empty netter with a second left to secure the 3-1 upset.

“We just wanted it really bad, and put it away,” Rizk said. “They took us as a joke, and we just gave it to them.”

_— Kyle Johnson _

First loss for W-hoops

The women’s basketball team opened the Hukilau Invitational in Hawaii with an 82-73 loss to BYU, dropping the Wildcats to 5-1 on the season.

Davellyn Whyte led Arizona with 19 points on 6-of-10 shooting (3-of-6 from 3-point range) despite scoring just two first-half points and spending most of the half on the bench in foul trouble.

The Wildcats only led BYU for the first few minutes of the game, but kept the game close throughout as the Cougars’ biggest lead was only by seven points until the waning seconds of the game. Arizona managed to bring the game to within three points with 38 seconds remaining but a late turnover proved costly in the loss.

— Zack Rosenblatt

Swim in second

The Arizona swimming and diving team sits in second place after the first day of the Texas Invitational, hosted by the University of Texas, which leads the event with 604 points. The Longhorns are followed by Arizona with 506 and USC with 484.5.

Arizona had five winners with Alyssa Anderson winning the women’s 500-yard freestyle, Giles Smith winning the men’s 100 butterfly, Matt Barber winning the men’s 500 freestyle, Cory Chitwood winning the men’s 200 individual medley and Margo Geer winning the women’s 50 freestyle.

The Wildcats also picked up a pair of team victories in the men and women’s 400 medley relay.

— Daily Wildcat