Cats end season with 2nd round loss to USD

After battling back to overcome a two-game deficit, the No. 21 Arizona volleyball team was unable to upset No. 9 San Diego Saturday in the second round of the NCAA tournament at the Torero's home, Jenny Craig Pavilion.

The game marks only the second time in 43 postseason contests that the Wildcats rallied after dropping the first two matches to force a fifth set. In 1985, Arizona defeated in-state rival Arizona State in five matches but could not repeat history in its loss to San Diego (30-28, 30-28, 25-30, 27-30, 15-13).

With the defeat, Arizona (19-11) was eliminated from the tournament while San Diego (24-4) travels to Louisville, Ky., to take on Southern California next weekend in the regional semifinal.

"I was so proud of the team, how they responded to games one and two," said UA head coach Dave Rubio. "It was so close. We had chances in both of those games to win. We hadn't been put in that situation is a long time. The kids really showed something to me and to themselves. They just showed so much courage. It was great for us to be that tough when it really counted."

Between the two squads, eight players notched double-digit kills. UA junior outside hitter Kim Glass led both teams with 23 kills, while the Toreros' Emily Haas had 19, including eight in the first set alone.

Arizona seniors Jolene Killough, Cassidy Crum and Kelli Mulvany ended their careers with the loss. Killough had nine kills on a .304 clip in addition to five total blocks while Mulvany served up two aces and a team-high 20 digs. Crum finished with eight digs.

The game was closely fought on both sides of the net with the Wildcats just surpassing the Toreros in hitting percentage (.209 to .208) and blocks (14 to 13.5). USD bettered Arizona in kills (79 to 69), assists (77 to 65) and digs (79 to 72).

The final game was back and forth with neither team holding more than a 3-point lead, but two kills by San Diego setter Lindsey Sherburne and an attack error by UA's Glass on the final play of the match ended the Wildcats season.

"The playing field was even for both teams," Rubio said. "We had the momentum going into game five. We were up 10 to seven, and really had a chance to swing going away. A lot of strange things go on in game five. We got into a rotation and had (to take) three swings to get out of it. Normally we would have blocked both those balls and earned both those points, but unfortunately it wasn't meant to be."

In the fourth game, Arizona held San Diego to 12 kills and 12 errors on 51 attempts for a season-low hitting percentage of .000. The Wildcat defense had six blocks in the third match to hold the home team to a .132 clip. Freshman Dominique Lamb recorded four of her match-high eight blocks in the match, while Killough and juniors Jennifer Abernathy and Bre Ladd had two apiece. San Diego dominated in the first two matches, hitting .395 in the second and winning the first despite eight attack errors.

"The home court advantage was an advantage for them," Rubio added. "They had great crowd support. They got a couple of key calls that went against us. Those things happen on the road. San Diego is a terrific team but we certainly put ourselves in a position to win that match. It was so disappointing for everyone. If you're going to lose, you're going to lose this way. We fought hard, we battled but we came up a little short in game five."

On Friday night, Arizona kept its distance, sweeping UC Irvine (30-19, 30-17, 30-18) in dominating fashion in the NCAA tournament. The win marked the sixth time in its last seven NCAA tournaments Arizona has advanced past the first round.

Glass and Abernathy paced the Arizona attack, recording 29 of the Wildcats' 53 kills on the night. Glass collected a game-high 16 kills on .324 hitting in addition to 11 digs.

Abernathy, who struggled down the stretch, hit .667 with 13 kills on 18 attempts and had a match- and career-high 17 digs. Abernathy was one swing short of holding UA's single match record for hitting percentage but an error on her last attempt prevented her from doing so. The junior's performance warranted her the second-highest hitting percentage for an individual player in a postseason match at Arizona.

Sophomore setter Stephanie Butkus dished out 35 assists, five kills and seven digs, while Killough notched seven kills and a match-high seven total blocks.

"It was one of those matches when we had a good game plan," Rubio said. "Obviously we did a good job of executing it. They didn't match up well good with us. We played great defensively, our blocking was solid. Overall, it was one of the better matches that we played. It was nice to play that well going into playoffs."