It was a tough weekend in the City of Angels for the Wildcats, as the Arizona volleyball team was swept by UCLA by set scores of 25-14, 25-19 and 25-20 on Feb. 28 at Pauley Pavilion. 

From the beginning of the first set, the Wildcats looked lost on defense. After opening the set with a service error, Arizona dug themselves into an 8-3 hole that they would not recover from. Outside hitter Sofia Maldonado Diaz did not look like her usual dominate self, registering only five kills in the first set and just 10 for the whole match. Another Wildcat who looked out of sorts was setter Emery Herman. Herman had two service errors and only nine assists for the set and 22 for the match. 

UCLA flexed their muscles in the second set, commanding a dominant 12-4 lead at one point. It got so bad that Arizona used two timeouts in five minutes to try and draw up a plan to slow the Bruins down. Those Bruins were outside hitter Mac May and setter Audrey Pak. May dominated the floor with nine kills and Pak contributed nine assists. No Wildcat had more than four kills in the entire second set.

Up until the third set, Arizona had not led for a single minute the entire match. The Wildcats took their first major lead at 15-13 and looked as if they were building up momentum to steal a set from UCLA. Then the Bruins closed the gap and tied it up at 19-19 and did not lose the lead after that. 

UCLA led the match in kills, hitting percentage, attacks, digs, blocks and player point total. The Wildcats only led in assists by one and finished with three players in the top five for errors. 

The Wildcats return home to take on their archrival Arizona State on Friday, March 5, at 2 p.m. MST. 

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