KRISTIN ELVES

Junior middle blocker Stefani Saragosa attempts a kill against Washington Friday night in McKale Center. The Wildcats swept their weekend matches against UW and Washington State.

Monday October 15, 2001

The UA women's volleyball team swept both matches this weekend against Washington and Washington State, but the wins didn't come easily.

Seventh-ranked Arizona (11-3 overall, 6-3 Pacific 10 Conference) breezed to a 3-0 (30-19, 30-26, 30-24) victory against the Cougars in front of a crowd of 3,711, a season high, Friday.

Many fans showed up to the game because of the "Midnight Madness" activities that followed the game.

The Wildcats began the match with a 20-8 game-one lead, and they never looked back.

The difference in the match was Arizona's defense, which held the Cougars to a .185 hitting percentage, while UA finished the match with a .411 percentage.

UA head coach Dave Rubio said that Arizona's play against the Cougars is the way the Wildcats will need to perform for the rest of the season.

"(Friday's) match was an indication of where we have to go as a team,"

Rubio said. "I just hope that we can stay on course and become more steady and consistent.

However, the Wildcats were anything but consistent in their 3-2 (30-20, 30-15, 30-32, 28-30, 15-13) victory over the Huskies.

Saturday looked like it would be an easy win for UA. After taking the first two games 30-20 and 30-15, the Wildcats seemed poised for a rout, but the match quickly turned into a dogfight.

"I felt like some players on our team left the building in game three," Rubio said. "Once we lost game three, we made so many errors, all they had to do was keep the ball in play."

The Wildcats committed 16 errors in the third game, allowing Washington to take the game 34-32. Washington also won the fourth game 30-28.

Rubio wasn't the only one who thought that something was missing after the team took the court for the third game.

Senior setter Dana Burkholder, who tied the UA record with her fourth career triple-double on Saturday, saw the game begin to slip away.

"Mentally we left the building," Burkholder said. "They also seemed to get a lot faster and we couldn't stop them. They played an incredible match."

Fortunately for the Wildcats, junior outside hitter Lisa Rutledge and senior outside hitter Jill Talbot were dominant in the fifth game, and the Wildcats pulled out the match with a 15-13 win in the deciding frame, highlighted by Rutledge's four kills.

Talbot finished with a match-high 24 kills on a .570 hitting percentage. She also led the team in digs with 18.

"I was just trying to be consistent," Talbot said. "I don't think that I have ever played that well before."

The Wildcats finished their match against the Huskies with five players with double digits in kills, including Talbot and Rutledge, who finished the match with 24 and 23 kills, respectively.

Junior outside hitter Shannon Torregrosa continued her poor hitting in Saturday's match against the Huskies.

Torregrosa finished the match with 15 kills, but her hitting percentage was a dismal .024, her lowest of the season.

"I am really disappointed in Shannon's play versus Washington," Rubio said. "She lost focus, and she made a lot of unnecessary errors. Right now we have to live and die with her, and I am just hoping that she has enough confidence and belief in herself to handle the role that she has on our team."

Rubio said he wasn't pleased with his team's performance, but he was happy to see that the Wildcats were able to overcome their poor play and still come away with a victory.

"We learned a lot about ourselves this weekend," Rubio said. "We regrouped, despite disintegrating completely, and it showed the character of our team."