Northern Arizona has always been a friendly neighbor.
From volunteering to be the victim of men's basketball coach Lute Olson's 500th win at Arizona to helping the women's basketball team get back on track Saturday, the Lumberjacks have always been there for Tucson. The athletic department even put out a release on Saturday saying, "A ceremony honoring Olson's 500th Arizona win will immediately follow the game."
And yesterday, NAU's match with the UA volleyball team proved to be no different.
No. 21 Arizona (17-13, 10-8 Pacific 10 Conference) breezed by NAU (13-16, 7-7 Big Sky) in straight sets, 30-22, 30-19 and 30-20 yesterday morning in front of 131 spectators. The match provided the Wildcats with a chance to get their reserves some action and set a few records.
Sophomore outside hitter Kim Glass' assault on the record book continued with her 29th match with 10 or more kills this season, a school record. Sophomore middle blocker Bre Ladd had a school-record .765 hitting percentage in the three-game contest. She had 14 kills on 17 swings.
"From the beginning of the year, when we were struggling, the comment that we were making as a staff was, ÎWe've got to get the ball to Bre more,'" said head coach Dave Rubio. "It's obvious she's got the offense, and now we're certainly getting a chance to do that.
"A lot of that has to do with the passing and defense being on the money to get the middles more involved, and I think both setters do a real good job to involve the middles," Ladd said. "We have two pretty outstanding left sides. People tend to come in on them."
"To her credit, she's been patient and working hard to stay positive in those rough situations. And now it's kind of coming full circle," Rubio said of Ladd. "Every time we set her, she's terminating the ball almost 50 percent, which is pretty remarkable."
For the Wildcats' lone senior ÷ setter Kelly Griffin-Halfaker, who played most of the match and tallied 23 assists ÷ the fact that the NAU contest may be her last home match didn't really sink in.
The fact that it may not be her final match at McKale Center didn't help either.
"To tell you the truth, I hadn't really thought about it, because I think there's a good chance we might host (a tournament game). So we still (might) have another home match," Griffin-Halfaker said.
The match also was a chance to get redshirt freshman outside hitter Meghan Cumpston some action. Cumpston had nine kills on 10 swings against NAU.
"We got a chance to play some people who normally don't get a chance," Rubio said. "You get a chance to see how good Meghan Cumpston is. She's exceptional talented, it's pretty obvious."
The Wildcats finish up their regular season at No. 22 UC Santa Barbara on Saturday.
"It was a good opportunity to kind of play a tune-up match before going in to play UC Santa Barbara on Saturday," Rubio said.
Glass' record weekend did not go unnoticed. She was named Pac-10 Player of the Week a couple hours after the NAU match.
Glass earned the honors for the week of Nov. 17-Nov. 23 for tallying 58 kills on 104 swings for a .356 hitting percentage against Washington State and No. 11 Washington. Glass broke the school record for matches with 20-plus kills and broke her own single-season kill record.
Against the Cougars, the second-year player joined the prestigious 30-kill club for the third time this season, and tied the school record for 30-plus-kill matches in a career.