CLAIRE C. LAURENCE/Arizona Daily Wildcat Arizona outside hitter Kim Glass (86) spikes a ball past a pair of Trojan defenders Friday night in the Wildcats' 3-1 loss to the No. 1 and undefeated USC Trojans.

Wildcats' tourney hopes take hit with home loss

The UA volleyball team may be disappointed with its Friday night loss to Southern California ÷ but the Wildcats joined a very exclusive club in their loss to the best team in the nation.

Arizona (12-13, 6-8 Pacific 10 Conference) became one of only three teams to win a game against No. 1 USC (24-0, 15-0) this season in a 3-1 loss in front of more than 1,200 fans in McKale Center.

The Women of Troy have won their last 31 road matches and have won their last 36 matches overall, including 72 of their 76 games this year.

With the loss, Arizona must now win four of its final five matches to be eligible for the NCAA Tournament.

"SC's a great team and, in my mind, the best team in the history of volleyball," said UA head coach Dave Rubio. "But tonight, we had an opportunity to push them a little bit further than we did, and I'm disappointed that we weren't able to do that."

The first three games were nail-biters, with Arizona sneaking out a 30-27 win in game two, in between USC's 30-25 and 30-26 victories in games one and three, respectively. But the Trojans put Arizona away during game four with a 30-17 rout.

Sophomore outside hitter Kim Glass tied her own school record with her 14th 20-plus-kill game of the season, tallying 22 kills on the night. Reigning national and Pac-10 player of the week Jennifer Abernathy had 17 kills.

But the left-side duo of Glass and Abernathy had poor hitting percentages of .090 and .136, respectively.

Rubio attributed the loss to bad passing, which hampered the Wildcats' setting ability. Arizona hit only .117 as a team, including .044 in game one and .000 in game four, while USC hit .188 overall.

"I'd say it was a disappointment just because we went out there confident and I thought we were going to win this game," Glass said. "(Rubio) believes in us a lot ÷ no one else across the country did ÷ but I think a lot of us believed in ourselves and just when it came down to it, things were breaking down. Our passing was breaking down."

USC had a balanced offense, as four Trojans finished the match with double-digit kills, even though the team hit well below its NCAA-leading .359.

Arizona relied mostly on the duo of Glass and Abernathy, though junior libero Kelli Mulvany had her seventh straight double-digit dig match with 15.

"I'm disappointed that we didn't beat USC," Rubio said. "I didn't think they played to the best of their ability, to the level they are capable of playing. I think we had an opportunity to push these guys."

Rubio said the time for moral victories is over, comparing the loss to the heartbreaking 3-2 setback at No. 2 Hawaii.

"There's an aspect of me that says it's nice to be able to compete against USC, but there's no more coming close and losing as a consolation and feeling good about ourselves," Rubio said. "That happened with Hawaii. Hawaii was a great loss for us, but we're beyond that point in our development as a team."

The Wildcats hit the Oregon trail this weekend, playing the Oregon Ducks (3-20, 0-14) on Thursday before heading to Corvallis to face the Oregon State Beavers (14-12, 4-10) Friday. Arizona's final home stand is next week against No. 11 Washington and Washington State.

Arizona's postseason hopes could hinge on its final game of the season, Nov. 29 at UC-Santa Barbara.