David Rubio had a feeling the Wildcats could struggle early in the season because of their youth.

The Wildcat head coach was right.

Louisville dominated the UA women's volleyball team in all aspects as they cruised to a 3-0 (19-30, 27-28, 28-30) victory Saturday.

UA defeated Texas Arlington and American earlier in the weekend but the loss dropped the Wildcats (2-1) to a national ranking of 11, which marks the first time in two years that it has been ranked out of the Top 10.

With the loss Rubio was also denied his 200th career victory. He is now one win away.

The Cardinals' serving turned out to be the deciding factor as they accumulated 12 aces in comparison to UA, who had 12 service errors.

"Our service game was inconsistent," said UA associate head coach Charita Johnson. "Our passing broke down and that is something that we definitely have to work on. We have a lot of new players and we are going to have our ups and downs, but we need to be more consistent."

Another problem the Wildcats faced was Invitational MVP Sonja Percan, who scorched the Wildcats with 18 kills on a .382 hitting percentage.

UA freshman outside hitter Kim Glass and senior outside hitter Shannon Torregrosa each led the Wildcats with 14 kills.

"Kim Glass stepped up to the challenge over the weekend," Johnson said. "She had some really good numbers. Lisa (Rutledge) and Shannon played well."

"We have a lot of young bodies and it is going to be an ongoing evolution for us this season. -Charita Johnson Head Coach

Rutledge was the only other Wildcat to post double-digits in kills against the Cardinals as she added 11 kills.

With senior middle blocker Stefani Saragosa only available to be used sparingly due to a strained pectoral muscle, UA freshman Bre Ladd was looked on to add some offense at the net.

That did not occur, however.

Ladd struggled and was held without a kill, but she had six attack errors, which led to a -.857 hitting percentage.

Torregrosa said the loss to Louisville was a positive as the team realizes where they need to improve.

"The seniors realize that this loss showed us what we need to work on," Torregrosa said.

"I told the younger players that we are not going to get better overnight. We have a lot of freshmen and we need to practice hard every day."

With the schedule only getting harder this week, Johnson said UA will have a hard week in practice to try to improve on last weekend's performance.

"We need to work hard this weekend on our serving and passing," Johnson said.

"We have a lot of young bodies and it is going to be an ongoing evolution for us this season."