In years past, Washington and Washington State have given the Arizona volleyball team little concern, but that all changed over the weekend.

No. 17 WSU and the Huskies proved the Pacific 10 Conference is strong from top to bottom as they both gave UA (7-6 overall, 2-3 Pac-10) all that it could handle.

Both matches went five games, with the Wildcats defeating Washington and losing to WSU.

UA's first test was against the Cougars on Thursday night and both teams fought to the end, but WSU defeated the Wildcats 2-3 (30-28, 22-30, 30-24, 26-30, 11-15)

Statistically, the Wildcats should have defeated the Cougars, as they had three more kills, 16 more digs and 2.5 more blocks at the net, but WSU was resilient at home.

The story of this match offensively was Wildcat freshman Kim Glass and senior Lisa Rutledge against WSU's balanced offensive attack.

Glass finished the match with a career-high 30 kills and Rutledge added a season-high 27 kills.

Glass became only the eighth Wildcat to record 30 kills and the first since Allison Napier recorded 34 kills in 2000.

However, Arizona was unable to get any offensive consistency from the rest of its team, since no other Wildcat finished the match with more than five kills.

"It is so important for us to try to get everyone involved," Rutledge said. "To do well everyone needs to be involved in order to take the pressure off of Kim and I. It will also put the pressure on the other team to have to be concerned with everyone on the court."

In contrast, the Cougars had four players that finished the match with at least 10 kills.

Besides WSU's balanced offensive attack, the other difference in the match was Arizona's inability to stop the Cougars in the fifth and decisive game.

WSU hit .556 in game five in comparison to UA's .294 hitting percentage.

Arizona's loss to Washington State marked the first time in three years the Wildcats have lost three matches in a row and UA head coach David Rubio had a challenge of getting his team prepared for another tough match against the Huskies the next night.

At the start of the match it looked as though Arizona was physically drained after its tough match the night before as they dropped the first game 23-30.

However, the Wildcats bounced back and battled to another game five, except this time UA came out on top.

Arizona defeated the Huskies for the 10th straight time 3-2 (23-30, 30-24, 30-28, 21-30, 15-12).

The difference in the match was UA's style of play in the last game.

Against the Cougars, Arizona hit. 294 in the last game, but against the Huskies the Wildcats hit a scorching .421 and they held Washington a .158 hitting percentage.

"Playing in two five game matches was great experience for our team," senior middle blocker Shannon Torregrosa said. "It was good that we showed we can win in a five game situation. To come back after being physically and mentally drained and come out on top was really good for us."

Offensively, Glass and Rutledge led the way again for the Wildcats as they finished with 26 and 16 kills respectively.

Glass and Rutledge also added a match high 14 digs apiece.

Defensively, sophomores Jolene Killough and Kelli Mulvaney added to Glass's and Rutledge's strong defensive performances.

Killough finished with a match high seven total blocks and Mulvaney added 12 digs.

Senior setter Laurie Gardner also added 12 digs along with her 46 assists.

"We fought really hard this weekend," Rutledge said. "This weekend showed that the Pac-10 is such a tough conference and that no team can be taken lightly. You just have to go out and play hard each night."

The road does not get any easier for the Wildcats as they next take the court at home against No. 4 and defending National Champion Stanford Cardinal on Friday as a prelude to Arizona's Midnight Madness extravaganza.