CHRIS CODUTO/Arizona Daily Wildcat Middle blocker Kristina Baum attempts to block a return during Friday's loss to Stanford. Stanford defeated the sliding Wildcats 3-1 at McKale Center.

With an 0-7 opening to Pacific 10 Conference play very possible, the Arizona volleyball team must begin winning soon if it wants to continue playing into December.

This weekend, Arizona (6-9, 0-5 Pac-10) travels west to face No. 8 UCLA (12-2, 4-1) and No. 1 Southern California (14-0, 5-0) ÷ and two losses would mean the Wildcats would have to do very well in the second half of the conference's round-robin schedule.

After this weekend, the Wildcats will have 13 matches left to right the ship. Eleven of those are against Pac-10 foes, on top of matches at No. 2 Hawaii and No. 19 UC-Santa Barbara.

Head coach Dave Rubio said that if the Wildcats finish over .500, they will get into the NCAA tournament, but that is not a concern to him right now.

"At this stage of the game, I'm not focused on whether or not we're going to be over .500. I'm going to take it one match at a time and hope that we continue to improve and play the game the way I envisioned it being played by our players," Rubio said. "We're just so young that our inexperience shows at times, and that's just kind of the hand that we're been dealt this year."

Match vs. Wildcats to be part of Trojan football/volleyball twin bill

Look for more Carson Palmer or Mike Williams jerseys than normal at USC on Saturday ÷ it's part of a volleyball-football doubleheader.

Trojan fans who show their ticket from USC's football game against Stanford will be allowed into the UA-USC volleyball match for free. The match starts at 4:30 pm ÷ the football game starts at 7 ÷ and fans are encouraged to make the 15-minute walk from the Lyon Center to the Los Angeles Coliseum.

UA faces reigning conference player of the week for third time this season

For the third time this season, the Wildcats will face the reigning Pac-10 Player of the Week, this time in UCLA's junior middle blocker Brynn Murphy.

Murphy had 43 kills and 16 digs last weekend against the Washington schools.

Stanford players, coach share family ties with Trojan rivals

When USC plays Stanford in men's basketball, Trojan freshman defensive specialist Anne Montgomery will probably be rooting for the Cardinal, as her dad is Mike Montgomery, Stanford's head coach.

In addition to the Montgomerys, there are other interesting USC ties. Junior Middle Blocker Emily Adams' father is former Phoenix Sun Alvan Adams, whose teammate was Truck Robinson, father of SC junior outside hitter Alicia Robinson. Also, freshman setter Alex Dunphy's father is a Volleyball Hall of Fame inductee, as well as Pepperdine's head coach, who the UA and USC have played.

September meeting of UA, ASU most attended Pac-10 match so far

Although there will be no Midnight Madness match this year, the UA is still one of the most watched teams in the Pac-10.

Its match at ASU was the most attended Pac-10 match this season, with 3,225 present. The Wildcats' match in Tucson versus Stanford was fourth at 2,011. Their matches against Miami (1,033) and Washington (1,013) are 13th and 14th, respectively.