KEVIN KLAUS/Arizona Daily Wildcat Freshman hitter Kim Glass attempts a spike Saturday against Pepperdine. Glass had a team-high 20 kills against the Waves. UA lost the match in three straight games after falling earlier in the day to Nebraska.

Freshmen shine, but struggle with serving and passing continues as Wildcats drop consecutive Saturday matches

Just a day after UA head volleyball coach David Rubio earned his 200th victory, he was denied his 201st and his 202nd in back-to-back loses to Nebraska and Pepperdine.

"Our serving was weak," said Rubio. "We either served weak or made a serving error. Our passing didn't do more than that. Those are by far the two big areas for us. It's going to be a season-long process to get better at that."

UA (3-3) started off the weekend on the right foot by defeating New Mexico (0-6) on Friday, in a tune-up match for Saturday's double-header against No. 2 Nebraska and 14th-ranked Pepperdine.

On Saturday, the Wildcats came out strong against the Huskers, winning game one 30-23 and looking like the Wildcats of a year ago.

However, Nebraska dominated UA in games two and three, which saw UA fail to score 20 points in either game.

When it looked like the Wildcats were going to throw in the towel, senior outside hitter Lisa Rutledge stepped up her game.

With the Wildcats down 22-26 in the fourth game, Rutledge tallied three straight kills to get UA back in the match and take a 30-29 lead.

"Improving our serving is a huge key for us. I think we will be a lot better team in a few weeks than we are now." - Kim Glass Freshman outside hitter

That was the end of the road, though, for UA.

Nebraska ran off three straight points and took the match 3-1 (30-23, 19-30, 15-30, 30-32).

At times, UA played well against the Huskers, but committed 30 unforced errors, which was too much for the young Wildcats to overcome.

UA stayed close with the nation's second ranked team for two games, which freshman outside hitter Kim Glass said shows signs of a promising future.

"When we come together and when we really want it bad enough we can beat anybody," Glass said. "Improving our serving is a huge key for us. I think we will be a lot better team in a few weeks than we are now."

After fighting back in the match against the Huskers, the Wildcats were then faced with the challenge of facing the 14th-ranked Waves just hours later. That challenge was too much for UA to handle.

Pepperdine came out and dominated the Wildcats in all aspects of the game and swept the home team 3-0 (27-30, 29-31, 14-30).

The Waves scorched the Wildcats with a team hitting percentage of .430 in comparison to a .248 mark for UA.

"We were really tired in that match," Rubio said. "We were really fatigued mentally and that was my biggest concern about going into that game. I knew with a young team playing back to back and we just weren't as sharp as we normally would be. That's really where a veteran team with veteran players knows how to gut it out and grind that win out."

One bright spot for the Wildcats was the play of its freshmen.

Glass led the way for the Wildcats with 20 kills against the Waves and she finished the weekend with a team high 42 kills.

Middle blocker Bre Ladd bounced back from a disappointing opening weekend to accumulate 24 kills over UA's three weekend matches.

Outside hitter Jennifer Abernathy, who saw increased playing time due to a lack of production from senior Shannon Torregrosa, continued her push for a starting position by contributing 15 kills over the weekend.

"I think Kim is always a bright spot," Rubio said. "She is an exceptional athlete. She is in a league of her own. I thought Jennifer played well. I thought the freshmen really played well. We are a team with a promising future. The question is when we get to the point where now is the future."

The Wildcats take the court this weekend as they travel to Stockton, Calif., to take on No. 13 Pacific, St. Mary's (Calif.) and British Columbia in their last action before the Pacific 10 Conference season begins.