DAVID HARDEN/Arizona Daily Wildcat Arizona freshman Kristina Baum attempts a return during the Wildcats' loss yesterday to San Diego State.

The UA volleyball team's woes in the Four Points University Plaza Wildcat Classic continued on Thursday as they fell to unranked San Diego State and No. 20 Santa Clara, both in four games.

The No. 10 Wildcats (2-3) lost to the Aztecs (2-1) 33-31, 24-30, 23-30, 27-30 and to the Broncos (2-1) 28-30, 30-21, 27-30, 30-32.

Despite having a 41-14 record in the 20-year-old tournament, Arizona has lost four of its last five matches in the Wildcat Classic, including to Nebraska and Pepperdine last year.

The Wildcats had 24 service errors and missed 17 serves against Santa Clara. Head coach Dave Rubio attributed the errors to inexperience.

"Have you ever met a young team that plays like a veteran team? I haven't," Rubio said. "We'll get better. We'll learn from this. These types of struggles shape the team that's going to be. Obviously we have great talent and it's going to be painful sometimes to deal with."

Rubio said he feels that in time, the Wildcats will overcome these kinds of setbacks.

"It's a direct reflection on our ability to sustain a high level of play throughout the entire match," he said. "We're really good in the beginning, really good in the middle and not so good in the end. We play close or lead all the way up until the end of the game, and unforced errors can kill you."

Rubio was unhappy with how the Wildcats came out for the first match, which started at 10 a.m.

"I was happy with the way we started the match in terms of our intensity and our own level of concentration," he said. "We played with a much better energy level than we did this morning."

Freshman setter Stephanie Butkus had a rough morning match and was spelled by freshmen setter and libero Tyler Bowman, who had 43 assists off the bench against the Aztecs. Rubio said that serving was the Wildcats' Achilles' heel ÷ specifically, missing serves from players who serve from the ground.

"(Serving was) the thing that really hurt us," he said. "Stephanie Butkus missed six serves today. That just killed us. This problem isn't going to go away."

Butkus bounced back in the late match with 69 assists. Against the Broncos, sophomore outside hitter Kim Glass had a match-high 22 kills, while sophomore middle blocker Bre Ladd had 17 kills.

Sophomore outside hitter Jennifer Abernathy had a career-high 18 kills on 34 tries with four errors, earning a .412 hitting percentage.

"I thought Stephanie Butkus played well today," Rubio said. "I thought the setter was much better than this morning. I thought she made some nice improvements and the outside hitters played well. Kim and Jen had a much better match.

"Overall we played better. We just gave away games at the end."

Against the Broncos, the UA did play better, leading most of the match

"This morning was awful just because we weren't ready to play and this is a pretty even match," Rubio said. "We made so many unforced errors throughout the match anyway you're just giving away points.

"It's a frustrating day. We certainly had our opportunities. We just didn't execute it well when we needed to."

The Wildcats play again tonight at 7:30 against Miami (4-0), which beat Rhode Island (1-5) in four games. UA will play Rhode Island on Saturday at noon.

The Rams have had a tough go of it so far, also falling to San Diego State yesterday. They were swept by the Aztecs, losing the third game, 30-16.

There will be more orange-and-green-clad fans than usual. Hurricane junior setter Mallorey James is from Tucson, having attended nearby Salpointe Catholic High School. In 2002, James was the Big East setter of the year.

In addition to James, Miami also returns 2002 Big East player of the year, junior right side hitter Valeria Tipiana, along with most of the starters from the Sweet 16 team of 2002.

The other matches in the tournament this weekend are Rhode Island versus Santa Clara at 10 a.m., followed by Miami against San Diego State along with the Broncos and Aztecs at 5 p.m. today. Miami and Santa Clara square off at 10 a.m. Saturday.