Day two of the Arizona Invitational was very promising for the Wildcats as they swept both Abilene Christian and San Jose State, 5-0. The ‘Cats were able to shut out San Jose State due to a decisive victory from senior Olivia MacDonald and sophomore Natalie Anselmo.

“We’ve got a lot of potential on the team, and I’m looking forward to taking each game one at a time,” senior McDonald said.

Top-ranked pair MacDonald and Anselmo split a game each (21-17 and 21-23) against San Jose State’s Nandyala Gama and Lyndi Scholl before going into the final set where the two Wildcats managed to win the set 15-13.

The ‘Cats started out their first game of the day against Abilene Christian with two consecutive wins behind an initial sweep from No. 4 ranked-pair junior Mia Mason and freshman Jonny Baham. The junior-freshman combo ended their first match with a 21-7 and 21-8 sweep against Abilene Christian’s Makenzie Kesler and Amy Weiss.

For Baham, this was her first college game and win.

“It was a good win because I was able to get the nerves out and get my first win for a college game under my belt,” Baham said.

The pair had to fight a little harder when it came to playing San Jose State. Mason and Baham took three sets to defeat SJSU’s Breann Robinson and Luiza Andrade. They won 21-18 in the first set, lost 17-21 in the second set, and dominated in the third set 15-7, giving them the overall victory.

“I enjoy playing with Mia [Mason] because we played together in the off-season, so we have some chemistry to work with on the sand,” says freshman Baham.

The ‘Cats remain undefeated in the season as they earned their third win to become the tournament champion.

The Sand Cats will next play against New Mexico in the Arizona Invitational at 12 p.m. Friday, March 2 at Bear Down Beach.