By
Kamy Shaygan
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Talbot shines against Stanford
As expected, the Arizona women's volleyball team earned a higher ranking in the new USA Today/American Volleyball Coaches Association coaches poll following a record-breaking performance this past weekend held at the McKale Center.
The No. 7 Wildcats tied a school record yesterday, becoming the highest-ranked Arizona volleyball team in the program's history.
The 1982 and 1989 squads also reached as high as seventh.
The Wildcats, who were previously ranked eighth in the nation, broke a school record by winning their 12th straight match of the season against rival Stanford and California.
The Cardinal, which had not lost to Arizona since 1993, had beaten the Wildcats in their previous 13 outings.
Arizona head coach David Rubio was extremely proud of the fashion in which the Wildcats broke the school record.
"If you look back in history, the other record was set against teams that were unranked," Rubio said. "It wasn't against significant teams, and the thing I am most proud of about with the group is that we have played a lot of ranked teams in the course of that 11 game stretch.."
Aggressive scheduling has given the Wildcats an opportunity to prove themselves against some of the nation's top teams.
For the third time this season, an Arizona player has been named recipient of the Pacific-10 Conference Player of the Week award.
Senior outside hitter Allison Napier, who has been lauded for her consistency in the past few weeks, was awarded the honor yesterday.
Napier dominated both Stanford and California this weekend at McKale Center, notching a team-high 37 kills and a .397 attacking percentage. Napier was a key element in the success of the Wildcats, who broke a school record for consecutive victories with wins last weekend.
Napier is seemingly more worried with the team's success than the records the Wildcats have set so far this season.
"I didn't really think about the record," Napier said. "School records are great, but they are not what I am playing for right now."
Senior middle blocker Marisa DaLee and junior setter Dana Burkholder were selected earlier this season for the conference honor.
Junior outside hitter Jill Talbot helped lead the charge for the Wildcats against Stanford last weekend, posting the second-highest attacking percentage in school history.
Talbot's .737 attacking percentage helped in the Wildcats domination of the Cardinal.
Talbot tallied an impressive 15 kills of only 19 attempts.
"We knew we were going to beat them and we knew we weren't going to lose," Talbot said. "I think our confidence level was really high."
Rubio had a mix of emotions regarding his team's execution after this weekend. Although the Wildcats broke numerous records so far this season, Rubio is confident that that the team can improve as the year progresses.
The Wildcats will have to overcome No. 4 Southern California and No. 8 UCLA if they hope to win the Pac-10 Conference title.
Rubio said that the Wildcats' fundamentals will need to improve if the team is to have continued success in 2000.
"Our serve receive broke down a couple of times," Rubio said. "We need to get ourselves back in the gym and work on our fundamentals and continue to work on excellence. That is what we are going to strive for this next week in practice. We were also suffering from a lack of execution in the passing area."
